Abstracts ASN Report 2019

NOTABLE EVENTS 2019 ȇɎǣƬǣȵƏɎǣȇǕ ƬȒȇǔǣȸȅƺƳ ȇƺƺƳɀ The public debate on the PNGMDR held in 2019 confirmed the need for new spent fuel storage capacity by about 2030 and the consistency of the choice of “wet” storage with the reprocessing strategy. This choice would also be compatible with direct disposal of the fuels. Generally speaking, ASN underlines the need to anticipate any strategic change in the functioning of the fuel cycle by at least ten years so that this change can be designed and carried out under satisfactory conditions of safety and radiation protection. It is a question for example –given the incompressible development times for industrial projects– of ensuring that the needs for the creation of new spent fuel storage facilities or for new transport packaging designs are addressed sufficiently early. ASN thus considers that it is important for EDF to continue its project to create new centralised storage capacity, without delay. For the longer term, given the foreseeable shutdown of the 900 MWe reactors, which are the oldest and today the only ones using MOX fuel: Ҋ either new storage capacity is required, well in excess of the current and planned volume; Ҋ or MOX fuel must be usable in reactors other than the ח ׎׎ ژ xáƺِ The time-frame required for the study and implementation of these options is about ten years. ASN therefore asks the industrial players to start examining these two options without delay. IN BRIEF MOX (mixed oxide) fuel is a nuclear fuel based on a mixture of oxides of uranium and plutonium. Its use in nuclear power generating reactors began abroad in the 1970s. It has been used in France since 1987. In 2017, of the 58 French reactors, 22 of EDF’s ח ׎׎ ژ xáƺ ȇɖƬǼƺƏȸ ȸƺƏƬɎȒȸɀ ɯƺȸƺ ɖɀǣȇǕ Ɏǝǣɀ ǔɖƺǼِ גא ȸƺƏƬɎȒȸɀ Əȸƺ ƏɖɎǝȒȸǣɀƺƳ ɎȒ ɖɀƺ ǣɎِ In France, MOX fuel uses only civil plutonium, extracted from spent fuel. Spent fuel pool at La Hague ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2019 27