ASN Report 2020

Civaux nuclear power plant The Civaux NPP is operated by EDF in the Vienne département , 30 km south of Poitiers in the Nouvelle- Aquitaine region. It comprises two PWRs with a power rating of 1,450 MWe. Reactors 1 and 2 constitute BNIs 158 and 159 respectively. The site accommodates one of the regional bases of the Nuclear Rapid Intervention Force (FARN) created by EDF in 2011 further to the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi NPP in Japan. Its role is to intervene in pre-accident or accident situations, on any NPP in France, by providing additional human resources and emergency equipment. ASN considers that the nuclear safety and radiation protection performance of the Civaux NPP stand out positively with respect to its general assessment of EDF plant performance, and that its environmental protection performance is in line with this general assessment. ASN considers that the nuclear safety performance is improving. ASN considers that the reactor management operations are on the whole conducted with rigour and that the NPP is capable of preventing, detecting and correcting inappropriate operating actions. Nevertheless, on several occasions, the rules defining the authorised operating range of the installation and the associated operating management instructions were not followed. ASN considers that the licensee competently carried out the planned maintenance activities during the reactor 1 refuelling outage. ASN considers that these areas of progress must be consolidated in 2021 and 2022 for the second ten-yearly outages of the reactors. With regard to radiation protection, ASN considers that the licensee has obtained satisfactory results in limiting worker exposure to ionising radiation. The licensee correctly evaluated the collective dose received by all the workers during the reactor 1 maintenance and refuelling operations. In the area of environmental protection, ASN has observed the licensee’s progress in its ability to contain an accidental spillage of hazardous products on the site. Nevertheless, the licensee must still put in place an ultimate containment basin that can ensure on-site containment of accidental spillages and fire extinguishing water should a fire break out. With regard to labour inspection, ASN considers that the Civaux NPP’s control of the asbestos risk can be improved. Specific investigations were carried out after the occurrence of workplace accidents, notably during work involving significant safety risks carried out in the space between the two containments of the reactor building. Lastly, ASN has specif ically monitored the health crisis, especially during the f irst lockdown, through its presence in the f ield, its participation at extraordinary meetings of the social and economic committee and by responding to individual and collective requests. THE INSTALLATIONS AND ACTIVITIES TO REGULATE COMPRISES: Basic Nuclear Installations: • the Blayais NPP (4 reactors of 900 MWe), • the Civaux NPP (2 reactors of 1,450 MWe); small-scale nuclear activities in the medical sector: • 19 external-beam radiotherapy departments, • 6 brachytherapy departments, • 24 nuclear medicine departments, • 88 centres performing fluoroscopy-guided interventional procedures, • 89 computed tomography scanners, • some 6,000 medical and dental radiology devices; small-scale nuclear activities in the veterinary, industrial and research sectors: • about 700 industrial and research centres, including 50 companies with an industrial radiography activity, • 1 cyclotron particle accelerator, • 67 laboratories situated mainly in the universities of the region, • about 500 veterinary surgeries or clinics practising diagnostic radiology; activities associated with the transport of radioactive substances; ASN-approved laboratories and organisations: • 5 organisations approved for radiation protection controls, • 8 organisations approved for measuring radon, • 4 laboratories approved for taking environmental radioactivity measurements. p. 206 p. 238 p. 266 ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2020 85 REGIONAL OVERVIEWOF NUCLEAR SAFETY AND RADIATION PROTECTION NOUVELLE-AQUITAINE