ASN Report 2020

removal from storage operations initially prescribed for 2018 in the ASN Chairman’s resolution CODEP-CLG-2017-006524 of 10 February 2017. This deadline was revised in ASN Chairman’s resolution CODEP-CLG-2020-062379 of 21 December 2020 relative to the periodic safety review of the facility which stipulates the deadlines for the nearest stages in these removal actions before 2025. The furthest removal from storage deadlines, planned by 2035, shall fall under application of the future Decommissioning Decree of the Pegasus facility. In 2019, the CEA submitted a decommissioning f ile for the Pégase part of BNI 22, which is currently being examined. The Cascad facility, authorised by a Decree of 4 September 1989 modifying the Pégase facility and operated since 1990, remains in service, dedicated to the dry storage of irradiated fuel in wells. The creation authorisation decree for the facility stipulates that ASN authorises the storage of fuels in Cascad for a period of 10 years. In the context of its last authorisation renewal application sent in 2014, the CEA had informed ASN of its aim to remove a portion of this fuel from storage for reprocessing in the La Hague plant before the end of 2023. These removal operations began at the end of 2020. ASN considers that the nuclear safety and radiation protection of the Pégase and Cascad facilities for 2020 is on the whole satisfactory. It more specif ically notes improvements in the monitoring of the action plans stemming from the last periodic safety review of the facilities in 2017, but remains attentive to the deadlines prescribed for the various removal from storage operations. Cabri research reactor – CEA Centre The Cabri reactor (BNI 24), created on 27 May 1964, is intended for conducting experimental programmes aiming to achieve a better understanding of the behaviour of nuclear fuel in the event of a reactivity accident. The reactor has been equipped with a pressurised water loop since 2006 in order to study the behaviour of the fuel at high combustion rates in accident situations of increasing reactivity in a Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR). Since January 2018, the CEA has been conducting a programme of tests called “CIP” (Cabri International Program), which began in the early 2000’s and necessitated substantial modification and safety upgrading work on the facility. On 25 September 2020, the licensee reported a signif icant event concerning a leak detected and collected in the “core water” system containment. This event and the compensatory measures proposed by the CEA are currently being examined by ASN, particularly their implications for reactor safety and protection of the environment. The periodic safety review of the facility submitted at the end of 2017 is currently being examined by ASN. Examination of the request to modify its authorisation decree in order to conduct irradiations on electronic equipment, which was submitted in 2019, continued in 2020. The next cycle of tests is planned for 2021. ASN considers that the level of nuclear safety and radiation protection of the facility is on the whole satisfactory. Rapsodie research reactor – CEA Centre The Rapsodie reactor (BNI 25) is the f irst sodium-cooled fast-neutron reactor built in France. It operated from 1967 to 1978. A sealing defect in the reactor pressure vessel led to its final shutdown in 1983. Decommissioning operations were subsequently undertaken, but have been partially stopped further to a fatal accident in 1994 during the washing of a sodium tank. At present the core has been unloaded, the fuel evacuated f rom the installation, the fluids and radioactive components have been removed and the reactor vessel is contained. The reactor pool has been emptied, partially cleaned out and decommissioned and the waste containing sodium has been removed. The licensee is continuing the clean-out and decommissioning preparation work. ASN continued its examination of the decommissioning file in 2020 and issued an opinion on a draft decree to regulate this forthcoming phase in the life of the reactor and which also sets a new perimeter for the installation. THE INSTALLATIONS AND ACTIVITIES TO REGULATE COMPRISES: Basic Nuclear Installations: • the CEA Cadarache research centre which counts 21 civil BNIs, including the Jules Horowitz reactor currently under construction, • the ITER installation construction site, adjacent to the CEA Cadarache centre. • the Gammaster industrial ioniser; small-scale nuclear activities in the medical sector: • 13 external-beam radiotherapy departments, • 3 brachytherapy departments, • 17 nuclear medicine departments, • 112 centres performing fluoroscopy-guided interventional procedures, • 105 computed tomography scanners, • some 8,200 medical and dental radiology devices; small-scale nuclear activities in the veterinary, industrial and research sectors: • about 400 industrial and research centres, including 3 cyclotron particle accelerators and 20 companies with an industrial radiography activity, • about 465 veterinary surgeries or clinics practising diagnostic radiology; activities associated with the transport of radioactive substances; ASN-approved laboratories and organisations: • 2 laboratories approved for taking environmental radioactivity measurements • 1 organisation approved for measuring radon, • 6 organisations approved for radiation protection controls. p. 206 p. 238 p. 266 ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2020 93 REGIONAL OVERVIEWOF NUCLEAR SAFETY AND RADIATION PROTECTION PROVENCE ALPES-CÔTE D’AZUR