2 // ASN actions in the field of research facilities: a graded approach 2.1 The graded approach according to the risks of the facilities The BNI System applies to more than about a hundred facilities in France. This System concerns various facilities with widely differing nuclear safety, radiation protection and environmental protection challenges: nuclear research or power reactors, radioactive waste storage or disposal facilities, fuel fabrication or reprocessing plants, laboratories, industrial ionisation facilities and so on. The safety principles applied to nuclear research or industrial facilities are similar to those adopted for nuclear power reactors and nuclear “fuel cycle” facilities, while taking account of their specificities with regard to risks and detrimental effects. ASN has implemented an approach that is proportional to the extent of the risks or drawbacks inherent in the facility. In this respect, ASN has divided the facilities under its oversight into three categories from 1 to 3 in descending order of the severity of the risks and drawbacks they present for the interests mentioned in Article L. 593-1 of the Environment Code (ASN resolution 2015-DC0523 of 29 September 2015). This BNI classification enables the oversight of the facilities to be adapted and thus focused on those with the highest risks, in terms of the inspections and the examinations carried out by ASN. For example, the RHF and Cabri research reactors are placed in categories 1 and 2 respectively, while the Ganil particle accelerator is placed in category 3. 2.2 The periodic safety reviews The Environment Code requires that the licensees carry out a periodic safety review of their facilities every ten years. This periodic safety review is designed to assess the status of the facility with respect to the applicable regulations and to update the assessment of the risks or detrimental effects inherent in the facility, notably taking into account the condition of the facility, acquired operating experience, changes in knowledge and the rules applicable to similar facilities. They are thus an opportunity for upgrades or improvements in fields in which the safety requirements have changed, in particular seismic resistance, protection against fire and confinement. To date, all the nuclear research and miscellaneous facilities have undergone a periodic safety review. ASN implemented an examination method commensurate with the issues in the facilities: some facilities require particular attention due to the risks they present, while for others presenting a lower level of risk, the extent of the inspections and examinations is adapted accordingly. The technical examination of all the reports will therefore take several years, owing to the specific nature of each of the facilities concerned. For example, on 1 November 2017, CEA transmitted 16 periodic safety review reports to ASN. CEA then informed ASN that it wished to even out the workload involved in these reviews, in terms of its organisation and its resources, by bringing forward the submission of the periodic safety review reports for certain facilities in the coming decade. ASN is in favour of this approach. In 2021, ASN continued with on-site inspections specifically devoted to the periodic safety review of the facilities in order to complete its examinations. It finds that CEA has now better assimilated the problems relating to the review, thanks to the implementation on each site of a transverse organisation specifically devoted to this process. ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2021 325 12 – NUCLEAR RESEARCH AND MISCELLANEOUS INDUSTRIAL FACILITIES 08 07 13 04 10 06 12 14 03 09 05 11 02 AP 01
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