As regards environmental protection, ASN notes stable performance and considers that the organisational set-up for protection of the environment is satisfactory, and that the equipment necessary for monitoring environmental discharges is correctly maintained. Concerning atmospheric discharges of greenhouse gases, ASN observes a reduction in discharges of SF6 but a significant increase in discharges of cooling fluids. ASN expects to see improvements in this latter point. With regard to labour inspection, ASN observes that the workers know and comply with the safety requirements, but that the observed improvements must be continued. The ASN inspections have also found deviations in the verifications of handling cranes and the management of the fire evacuation plans in some parts of the facility. ASN will be attentive to the remedial actions taken to prevent the recurrence of such situations. Penly nuclear power plant The Penly NPP operated by EDF in the Seine-Maritime département in the municipality of Penly, 15 km north-east of Dieppe, comprises two 1,300 MWe PWRs commissioned between 1990 and 1992. Reactor 1 constitutes BNI 136 and reactor 2 BNI 140. ASN considers that the performance of the Penly NPP with regard to nuclear safety, radiation protection and environmental protection is on the whole in line with the general assessment of EDF plant performance. With regard to nuclear safety, ASN considers that operating rigour is improving, despite a few persistent weaknesses. ASN considers that particular attention must be paid to the quality of work preparation, particularly when performing the periodic tests. Some significant events for safety still reveal shortcomings in personnel training, and in the monitoring of the installations during the management of transient operating phases. ASN will be particularly attentive to these points in 2023, particularly during the restarting of the two reactors. As far as maintenance is concerned, at the end of 2021 during the ten‑yearly outage of reactor 1 the licensee detected stress corrosion cracks on systems connected to the main pipes of the primary cooling system. This led to a programme of inspections, expert assessments, and large-scale repairs throughout the year 2022. With regard to the maintenance and refuelling outage of reactor 2, the maintenance operations were well managed on the whole and will continue in 2023, also further to the discovery of cracks. During the work on the two reactors, ASN observed repeated shortcomings in contractor monitoring, both in the documentation part and in the checking of the workers’ practices. Greater rigour is expected on this subject. Alongside this, although ASN notes a reduction in the number of significant events linked to the detection of maintenance nonqualities, it considers that the safety impacts of the detected deviations must be analysed in greater depth. In the area of radiation protection, ASN considers that shortcomings persist in the control of the contamination risk and in the radiation protection culture during reactor outage periods, particularly in the deployment and maintaining of measures to limit occupational exposure on the worksites. Organisational improvements are also expected, particularly for the setting up of the radiation protection skills centre. As for environmental protection, ASN considers that the Penly NPP has obtained satisfactory results in waste monitoring and management and notes an improvement in the measures taken to control discharges of ozone-depleting gases. Improvements are nevertheless expected in the management of non-radiological risks. Although ASN has observed, in an exercise held during an inspection, that the NPP teams’ organisation for managing non-radiological emergency situations is responsive and appropriate, the operational documentation available to the teams must be supplemented in order to integrate certain risks which are not taken into account at present. With regard to labour inspection, ASN observes that the workers generally know and comply with the safety requirements. However, the inspections have occasionally found deviations in the prevention of vital risks (such as the prevention of the risk of anoxia or electrocution) and risks relating to lifting operations. ASN will therefore be attentive to the steps taken to reinforce the measures to prevent these risks. In-depth inspection at Penly In November 2022, ASN conducted a week-long in-depth inspection at the Penly NPP addressing themes such as safety management, operational control, maintenance, dealing with deviations and the modification of the facilities. This inspection, which mobilised some ten ASN inspectors, found the site organisation and operation to be efficient on the whole. ABSTRACTS – ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2022 73 Regional overview of nuclear safety and radiation protection • NORMANDIE •
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