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 1,450 MWe PWRs. Reactor 1 constitutes BNI 158 and reactor 2 BNI 159. 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. At the end of 2021, EDF detected stress corrosion-related cracks in the circuits connected to the main pipes of the primary system of the two reactors. This issue will lead to a large-scale inspection and repair programme in 2022. ASN considers that the nuclear safety performance of the Civaux NPP remained stable in 2021. 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. ASN nevertheless considers that the licensee must improve its management of the system for treating and cooling the water of the fuel storage pools and the reactor pools, which was the subject of several significant safety event reports in 2021. With regard to maintenance, ASN considers that, on the whole, the licensee prof iciently handled performance of the scheduled activities during the reactor 2 refuelling and maintenance outage and that its management of contingencies was satisfactory. Nevertheless, the activities programme was signif icantly delayed by maintenance operations on the emergency generators; proficiency in these operations must be improved. ASN considers it necessary to maintain these levels of performance in 2022, given the forthcoming second ten-yearly outage of the two reactors. With regard to radiation protection, ASN considers that the radiological cleanliness of the premises is one of the Civaux NPP’s strong points. In 2021, ASN conducted a tightened radiation protection inspection which concluded that the limitation of occupational exposure to ionising radiation was satisfactory, except in industrial radiography work. Nevertheless, def iciencies in the purif ication of the primary system during the reactor 2 shutdown had a significant impact on the collective dosimetry received by the workers. With regard to environmental protection, ASN considers that the Civaux NPP’s management of radioactive waste and radiological effluents in 2021 was satisfactory. The licensee has def ined a lasting solution for preventing run-offs and unplanned dispersion of radioactive or hazardous liquid substances into the environment. Nevertheless, an ultimate containment pond must be built to guarantee on-site containment of accidental spillages of liquid effluents or fire extinguishing water in the event of a f ire combined with heavy rainfall. With regard to labour inspection, ASN considers that the results in occupational safety are improving and notes positively the setting up of work site protection reviews and a good standard of activity preparation. ASN has nevertheless observed recurrent deficiencies in the control of the asbestosrelated risk, which resulted in accidental exposures in 2021. ASN notes several events relating to occupational safety linked to hand-held power tools and risk situations for workers relating to work at height and electrical work. ASN considers that the regulatory monitoring of the electrical installations of the industrial and tertiary buildings must be improved. THE INSTALLATIONS AND ACTIVITIES TO REGULATE COMPRISE: ཛྷ Basic Nuclear Installations: • the Blayais NPP (4 reactors of 900 MWe), • the Civaux NPP (2 reactors of 1,450 MWe); ཛྷ small-scale nuclear activities in the medical sector: • 19 external-beam radiotherapy departments, • 6 brachytherapy departments, • 24 nuclear medicine departments, • 85 centres performing fluoroscopy-guided interventional procedures, • 116 computed tomography scanners, • some 6,000 medical and dental radiology devices; ཛྷ small-scale nuclear activities in the veterinary, industrial and research sectors: • about 700 industrial and research centres, including 55 companies with an industrial radiography activity, • 1 cyclotron particle accelerator, • 55 laboratories located chiefly in the universities of the region, • about 500 veterinary surgeries or clinics practising diagnostic radiology; ཛྷ activities associated with the transport of radioactive substances; ཛྷ ASN-approved laboratories and organisations: • 4 organisations approved for radiation protection controls, • 14 organisations approved for measuring radon, • 6 laboratories approved for taking environmental radioactivity measurements. p. 202 p. 232 p. 260 ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2021 83 REGIONAL OVERVIEW OF NUCLEAR SAFETY AND RADIATION PROTECTION NOUVELLE-AQUITAINE
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