Abstracts ASN Report 2019

ASN ASSESSMENTS PER LICENSEE AND BY AREA OF ACTIVITY THE INDUSTRIAL AND RESEARCH SECTOR Among the nuclear activities in the ǣȇƳɖɀɎȸǣƏǼ sector, industrial radiography and more particularly gamma radiography, are priority sectors for ASN oversight owing to their radiation protection implications. ASN considers that the risks are addressed to varying extents depending on the companies, even though worker dosimetric monitoring is generally carried out correctly. If the risk of incidents and the doses received by the workers are on the whole well managed by the licensees when this activity is performed in a bunker in accordance with the applicable regulations, ASN is still concerned by the observed shortcomings in the signalling of the operations area during on-site work and notes a deterioration in the situation compared with 2018. More generally, ASN considers that the ordering customers should favour industrial radiography services provided in bunkers and not on site. Lastly, the content of operator training should better integrate the lessons learned from the significant radiation protection events. In the other priority sectors for ASN oversight in the industrial sector –industrial irradiators, particle accelerators including cyclotrons, suppliers of radioactive sources and devices containing them– the state of radiation protection is considered to be satisfactory on the whole. With regard to suppliers, ASN considers that preparations for the expiry of the sources administrative recovery period –which by default is 10 years– and the checks prior to delivery of a source to a customer, are areas in which practices still need to be improved. In the field of ȸƺɀƺƏȸƬǝ , the actions carried out in recent years have led to improvements in the implementation of radiation protection within the research laboratories. The most notable improvements concern the conditions of waste and effluent storage, particularly the setting up of pre-disposal checking procedures; nevertheless, further progress must be made, particularly in preparation for the recovery of unused “legacy” sealed radioactive sources. In addition, the registration and analysis of events which could lead to accidental or unintentional exposure of persons to ionising radiation, including as a result of insufficient traceability of the radioactive sources being held, are still not systematic enough. With regard to the ɮƺɎƺȸǣȇƏȸɵ ɖɀƺɀ Ȓǔ ǣȒȇǣɀǣȇǕ ȸƏƳǣƏɎǣȒȇ , ASN can see the result of the effortsmade by veterinary bodies over the past few years to comply with the regulations, notably in conventional radiology activities on pets. For practices concerning large animals such as horses, or performed outside veterinary facilities, ASN considers that the implementation of radiological zoning, thewearing of operational dosimeters and the radiation protection of persons fromoutside the veterinary facility who take part in the radiographic procedure, are points requiring particular attention. TRANSPORT OF RADIOACTIVE SUBSTANCES ASN considers that in 2019, the safety of transport of radioactive substances was on the whole satisfactory. ǼɎǝȒɖǕǝ Ə ȇɖȅƫƺȸ Ȓǔ ɎȸƏȇɀȵȒȸɎ ȒȵƺȸƏɎǣȒȇɀ ٫ȅƏǣȇǼɵ ƫɵ ȸȒƏƳ٫ ƳǣƳ ɀɖǔǔƺȸ ǣȇƬǣƳƺȇɎɀً Ɏǝƺɀƺ ȅɖɀɎ ƫƺ ȵɖɎ ǣȇɎȒ perspectivewith the 770,000 transport operations carried out each year. The incidents ledneither to dispersion of the package content into the environment, nor to significant exposure of persons, with the exception of one event concerning the overexposure of a driver transporting radiopharmaceutical products (dose of nearly 28 mSv (millisieverts) received over 12 consecutive months). The number of significant events relating to the transport of radioactive substances on the public highway remains stables (85 events reported to ASN in 2019). These were essentially: ڗى material non-conformities affecting a package. They had no real consequences on the radiation protection of people or the environment, although they did weaken the package (whether or not an accident occurred); ڗى non-compliance with internal procedures leading to the shipment of non-conforming packages, delivery errors, or packages being temporarily mislaid. The inspections carried out by ASN also frequently identify such deviations. The consignors and carriers must therefore demonstrate greater rigour in day-to-day operations. With regard to transport operations involved in the fuel cycle and, more generally, for BNIs, ASN considers that the consignors must further improve how they demonstrate that the contents actually loaded into the packaging comply with the specifications of the approval certificates and the corresponding safety cases. For transport operations involving packages that no longer require ASN approval, progress is observed with respect to the previous years, along with better application of the recommendations given in ASN Guide No. 7 (volume 3). The improvements still to be made generally concern the description of the authorised contents by type of package, the demonstration that there is no loss or dispersion of the radioactive content under normal transport conditions, and that is impossible to exceed the applicable dose rate limits with the maximum authorised content. At a time when the uses of radionuclides in themedical sector are generating a high volume of transport traffic, progress is still needed in knowledge of the regulations applicable to these transport operations and the arrangements made by certain hospitals or nuclear medicine centres for the shipment and reception of packages. ASN considers that the radiation protection of carriers of radiopharmaceutical products, who are significantly more exposed than the average worker, needs to be improved. ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2019 15