ASN Report 2020

ITER The ITER installation (BNI 174), under construction on the Cadarache site since 2010 and adjacent to the CEA facilities, will be a fusion experimental reactor used for the scientif ic and technical demonstration of the control of thermonuclear fusion energy obtained by magnetic conf inement of a deuterium-tritium plasma during long-duration experiments with a signif icant power level (500 Megawatts developed for 400 seconds). This international project enjoys financial support from China, South Korea, the United States, India, Japan, Russia, the European Union, who make in-kind contributions by providing equipment for the project. The large quantities of tritium that will be brought into play in this installation, the intense neutron flow and the resulting activation of materials have serious implications regarding radiation protection and will represent true challenges for the safe management of waste during the operation and decommissioning of the installation. The work on the site and the manufacture of equipment continued in 2020 with the objective of deploying the f irst hydrogen plasma by 2025. An assessment of the impact of the health crisis on the overall construction schedule is expected in 2021. The installation of the first components of the cryostat, which help support the vacuum chamber, was specially monitored during ASN’s inspections in 2020. These activities will make it possible to start the vacuum chamber assembly phase, for which the first components arrived on the site in 2020. ITER organisation requested approval to start this assembly phase in March 2020, in accordance with the require­ ment (BNI 174-07) of the amended ASN resolution of 12 November 2013. ASN made numerous additional inform­ ation requests in order to improve the consistency of this file and the justification of the items submitted. Assessment of the CEA Cadarache centre ASN considers that the level of nuclear safety of the CEA Cadarache centre in 2020 is on the whole satisfactory. The stopping of the facilities’ activities for the first lockdown from March to May 2020 and their subsequent restarting were carried out satisfactorily. ASN considers that the Basic Nuclear Installations (BNIs) are operated satisfactorily on the whole, especially the control of the condition of the equipment, compliance with the operating baseline requirements and waste management. Improvements are nevertheless expected in the in-depth analysis of significant events and the management of obsolescence of certain Protection Important Components. The CEA is moreover changing its system for managing fire loads in BNIs in order to remedy the recurrent failings in this area. Nuclear safety management is on the whole satisfactory, but, as in 2019, ASN considers that the sharing of experience feedback and good practices between facilities must be improved, as must the management of deviations. In addition, the monitoring of service providers and subcontractors is found to be contrasted, with some BNIs remaining below standard in this area. ASN considers that the organisation in place for the periodic safety reviews of the facilities is on the whole satisfactory. The extent to which the results of studies are taken on board or the human resources allocated to performing them seem nevertheless to vary from one BNI to another. ASN will be attentive to application of the BNI periodic safety review action plans, particularly with regard to carrying out the work identified in the reviews. The CEA must also put in place compensatory measures when actions fall behind schedule, whether due to the health crisis, to particular technical difficulties or to the priorities laid down in its general decommissioning and waste management strategy. This strategy, on which ASN and Defence Nuclear Safety Authority (ASND) have issued a position statement, induces changes in facility renovation and new facility construction projects for the CEA Cadarache centre, in favour of certain priority decommissioning worksites. The CEA must maintain a good operating standard in the facilities in operation, while at the same time ensuring that the priority decommissioning and legacy waste retrieval and packaging projects continue to move forward. With regard to emergency situation management, ASN considers that, despite the progress observed on certain BNIs concerning compliance with resolution 2017-DC-0592, the organisation implemented for emergency situation management requires improvements, particularly in the following of training courses and participation in emergency exercises. ASN considers that the radiation protection situation of the CEA centre is satisfactory. Optimisation of zone transition areas and of the positioning of radiological control equipment is nevertheless necessary in certain BNIs. ASN observes that the level of environmental protection is relatively satisfactory. With regard to monitoring of the discharges, improvements are required in the monitoring of the representativeness of measurement samples and the consideration of metrological uncertainties in the utilisation of the data. A nationwide request to this effect has been sent to all the BNIs of the CEA. Alongside this, improvements are expected in the application of ASN resolution 2013-DC-0360 of 16 July 2013 to hazardous or radiological product storage areas. Lastly, the laboratory analysing the samples for the non-radiological parameters, which did not comply with standard 17025, has implemented compensatory measures for the continuation of measurement activities. 98 ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2020 REGIONAL OVERVIEWOF NUCLEAR SAFETY AND RADIATION PROTECTION