4.3 Assessment of the CEA’s decommissioning strategy Given the number and complexity of the operations to be carried out for all the nuclear facilities concerned, the CEA is giving priority to reducing the “dispersible inventory” which is currently very high in certain facilities, particularly in some of the individual facilities of the Marcoule DBNI and in BNIs 56 and 72. In their Position Statement Letter of 27 May 2019, ASN and the ASND considered that, given the resources allocated by the State and the large number of facilities undergoing decommissioning for which legacy waste retrieval and storage capacity will need to be built, it was acceptable for CEA to envisage staggering the decommissioning operations and that priority be given to the facilities with the greatest safety risks. The two Authorities have since observed changes in the WRP schedules presented by the CEA, particularly the pushing back of waste management deadlines, including for operations considered to be priorities. ASN, ASND and the CEA have agreed to set up regular monitoring of these operations, through progress indicators in particular. As concerns facilities classified as lower priority, ASN and ASND have also noted significant push-backs of some of the decommissioning deadlines announced by the licensee since 2016. The two authorities will rule on the CEA’s justifications for these schedule push-backs on reception of the facilities’ decommissioning files. RESULTS OF THE EXPLORATORY APPROACH TO THE OVERSIGHT OF COMPLEX PROJECTS CONDUCTED WITH THE CEA IN 2021 AND 2022 In 2021 and 2022, CEA voluntarily embarked on the implementation of an exploratory approach to the oversight of complex projects by ASN. The aim of this approach is to develop effective oversight of the nuclear licensees’ control of complex projects, of which the smooth running and compliance with the deadlines determine the risks for nuclear safety. ASN performed a joint inspection of the BNI 37-B(*) decommissioning project from 4 to 8 July 2022. This inspection was carried out with the DGEC competent for checking the financial issues associated with complex project control, with the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), and a consultancy firm with expertise in complex project management. It emerges from this inspection that the CEA has assets to succeed with this decommissioning, chiefly the personnel commitment and skills, the appropriate technical choices for the decommissioning scenario and initiatives on the part of the central services for improving certain project management practices. The inspectors identify five areas for improvement, namely: ■ ensuring consistency with the project baseline reference(**), ■ project control discipline, ■ improving project maturity, ■ contract management, ■ safety management. * BNI No. 37-B is the former Radioactive Liquid Effluents Treatment Station (STEL) of the Cadarache centre, which functioned from 1965 to 2013. ** The baseline reference is the reference scheduling meeting, the reference budget and the reference technical scenario. It constitutes the integrated reference against which project progress is measured, which allows early detection and analysis of deviations in deadlines, costs or technical modifications, and therefore to foresee the corrective measures to take to maintain project control. This is the purpose of the project control discipline. 352 ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2022 • 13 • Decommissioning of Basic Nuclear Installations 13
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