There was a decrease in the number of significant events relating to control of the criticality risk reported by Framatome and rated level 1 on the INES scale in 2022. However, a fire outbreak on 21 September 2022 in the SE9 unit of the “uranium zone” led to activation of the PUI: this impacted all Cerca’s production; extensive cleaning and verification work had to be carried out in the facilities before restarting the equipment. The management of the event enabled all the lines of defence to be maintained and there was no impact on the population or the environment. This event was rated level 0 on the INES scale. The results of the inspections carried out on the Romans-surIsère site in 2022 are satisfactory on the whole. In 2023, ASN will be attentive to the continuation of the qualification tests for final commissioning of the NZU, and the deployment of the new environmental monitoring plan required by the resolutions concerning water intakes and consumption, effluent discharges and the environmental monitoring of BNI 63-U. THE INDUSTRIAL AND RESEARCH FACILITIES The Laue‑Langevin Institute high flux reactor The Laue-Langevin Institute (ILL), an international research organisation, accommodates a 58 Megawatts thermal (MWth) heavy-water RHF which produces high-intensity thermal neutron beams for fundamental research, particularly in the areas of solid-state physics, neutron physics and molecular biology. The RHF constitutes BNI 67 which accommodates the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), an interna-tional research laboratory. Employing some 500 persons, this BNI occupiesa surface area of 12 hectares situated between the rivers Isère and Drac, just upstream of their confluence, near the CEA Grenoble centre. On the basis of its oversight activities in 2022, ASN considers that the safety management of the RHF is satisfactory. The year 2022 was devoted to extensive works to renew and rein- force the safety of the installation. In 2022, the ILL continued progressing with the action plan established for its third periodic safety review and enriched by the commitments made further to the expert assessment associated with this review. ASN resolution 2022DC-0738 val-idating the conclusions of this review and governing the con -tinued operation of the RHF was signed on 28 July 2022. The main works of the major outage, which should have lasted fourteen months, focused on the replacement of technological equipment constituting the reactor vessel, reinforcement of the outside air intake of the reactor buildingand the installa-tion of anchor points on the containment dome in preparation for the future renovation operationson the main polar crane. An unforeseeable event occurred on this latter work site when drilling holes in the containment dome. The ILL conducted investigations on the concrete of the containment before installing the anchor points. ASN is examining the support-ing documents provided by the ILL. At the start of the year, more than half of the radioactive inventory of the former detritiation facility was transferred to the reactor building pending its final processing, for which the ILL filed an application for authorisation to modify the functioning of the facility. In July 2022 the ILL also submitted a “public information notice” file aiming to establish new technical requirements for discharges and environmental monitoring. ASN will be particularly attentive in 2023 to the restarting conditions following a 16-month outage and the containment dome event. ASN will be attentive to the preparation of the next high-stake issues for ILL, and notably the pre-cleanout operations on the former detritiation facility and the renovation of the polar crane. Lastly, the revision of the requirements regulating discharges will be continued in 2023. Ionisos irradiator The company Ionisos operates an industrial irradiator in Dagneux, situated in the Ain département. This irradiator, which constitutes BNI 68, uses the radiation from cobalt-60 sources for purposes such as sterilising medical equipment (syringes, dressings, prosthesis) and polymerising plastic materials. The level of safety of the facility was found to be satisfactory in 2022. ASN considers that the licensee must continue the foundation work aiming to better define the Components Important to Protection (PIC) of the interests of the facility and more rigorous application of their requirements defined in the periodic inspection and test procedures. An authorisation for recovery of the sludge from pool D1 (operated until November 1996) was issued by ASN in 2021. This operation was carried out in July 2022 and led to an inspection addressing contractor monitoring, which gave satisfactory conclusions. ABSTRACTS – ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2022 45 Regional overview of nuclear safety and radiation protection • AUVERGNE‑RHÔNE‑ALPES •
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