Abstracts ASN Report 2019

the maintenance baseline requirements and the physical conformity of the facilities with the applicable requirements must be improved. Several inspections and significant events also reveal maintenance errors following preventive and curative maintenance operations (on the emergency diesel generator sets in particular). The site must make further improvements in radiation protection. Despite the plan of rigour deployed by the site in 2019, which brought some improvements, ASN regularly detects significant malfunctions in the control of radiological cleanliness and contamination dispersion on the sites. To give an example, recurrent deviations are noted in the monitoring and the working condition of the equipment for placing the systems under negative pressure to limit contamination dispersion. Lastly ASN considers that the site must make further progress in environmental protection, particularly with waste management and the containment of liquids. ASN also regularly notes shortcomings in control of the risk of dispersion and proliferation of legionella in the tertiary circuit. With regard to labour inspection, substantial work was carried out on the electrical risk, focusing in particular on management of the regulatory checks of electrical installa- tions, authorisations and application of the lockout/tagout rules. Labour inspection also asked for complementary verifications on certain electrical systems. Improvement actions are expected of the licensee to ensure better control of the electrical risk. Following the occurrence of a serious handling and lifting-related accident, specific inspections were conducted to analyse the circumstances of the accident and check the corrective actions implemented by the licensee. CHINON SITE Situated in the municipality of Avoine in the Indre-et-Loire département , on the left bank of the river Loire, the Chinon site accommodates various nuclear installations, some in operation, others shut down or undergoing decommissioning. On the south side of the site, the Chinon B NPP comprises four in-service 900 MWe reactors; the first two constituting zX ژ ׏׎ ו ɯƺȸƺ ƬȒȅȅǣɀɀǣȒȇƺƳ ǣȇ ׏ ٮאזח ׏ בזח ً ɯǝǣǼƺ Ɏǝƺ ɀƺƬȒȇƳ ɎɯȒ ژ ƬȒȇɀɎǣɎɖɎǣȇǕ zX ژ ׏ אב ɯƺȸƺ ƬȒȅȅǣɀɀǣȒȇƺƳ ǣȇ ׏ ٮהזח ׏ וזח ِ ÁȒ ژ Ɏǝƺ ȇȒȸɎǝً Ɏǝƺ Ɏǝȸƺƺ ȒǼƳ ǕȸƏȵǝǣɎƺ ٮ ȅȒƳƺȸƏɎƺƳ J!«ɀ designated Chinon A1, A2 and A3, are currently being decom- missioned. The site also accommodates the IrradiatedMaterials Facility (AMI), designed for the expert assessment of activated or contaminated materials, whose activities have now been entirely transferred to a new laboratory –the LIDEC– and the MIR (Inter-regional fresh fuel warehouse). !ǝǣȇȒȇ ȇɖƬǼƺƏȸ ȵȒɯƺȸ ȵǼƏȇɎ Reactors B1, B2, B3 and B4 in operation ASN considers that the performance of the Chinon NPP is in line with the general assessment of EDF in the areas of safety, radiation protection and the environment. Although this assessment is identical to that of 2018 in the areas of safety and the environment, the radiation protection performance in 2019 is poorer than that observed in 2018. ASN considers that the NPP is maintaining a satisfactory level with regard to safety. Progress has been made in management of the alignment activities and performance of the periodic tests, both identified as weak points in the last few years. Continued progress is nevertheless required because these activities remain the cause of a large number of significant events. An improvement in the quality of the risk analyses and the traceability of maintenance operations was observed in 2019. In view of the deviations from regulations discovered during the inspections conducted in 2019, ASN considers that the licensee must significantly improve its management of risks related to fire and explosion. The radiation protection performance of the Chinon NPP is satisfactory, leading to good results in terms of dosimetry and radiological cleanliness. The year 2019 was nevertheless marked by a rise in significant radiation protection events due to shortcomings in preventing contamination dispersion and a loss of robustness in the general organisation of the site in this respect. Although comparable with the national average, the environmental performance of the Chinon NPP must be improved. Despite compliance with the discharge limits for gaseous and liquid effluents, and no observed exceeding of limits for legionella and amoebae in 2019, numerous deviations from regulations were noted concerning waste management (a finding already made in 2018) and the containment of hazardous substances. The licensee must take priority actions to address these deviations. With regard to labour inspection, inspections were carried out in the areas of health and safety at work, particularly during the NPP maintenance outages. Thematic inspections were also carried out, particularly on management of the explosion risk. Improvements are expected of the licensee for the demonstration of control of conformity of facilities situated in identified explosion-risk areas. Reactors A1, A2 and A3 undergoing decommissioning The graphite-moderated GCRs series comprises six reactors, including Chinon A1, A2 and A3. These first-generation reactors used natural uranium as the fuel, graphite as the moderator and were cooled by gas. This plant series includes “integrated” reactors, whose heat exchangers are situated under the reactor core inside the vessel, and “non-integrated” reactors, whose heat exchangers are situated on either side of the reactor vessel. The Chinon A1, A2 and A3 reactors are “non-integrated” GCR reactors. They were shut down in 1973, 1985 and 1990 respectively. 48 ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2019 REGIONAL OVERVIEWOF NUCLEAR SAFETY AND RADIATION PROTECTION !0zÁ«0 ٳ à n (0 n…X«0