Concerning environmental protection, several events and problems of retention structure leakages in 2023 led to bypassing of the normal discharge routes, without harming the environment. ASN considers that the overall standard of waste management remains satisfactory. With regard to health and safety at work, ASN considers that appropriate measures have been put in place reactively to take account of the accident levels, particularly in lifting operations. Nevertheless, measures must be taken with outside contractors to improve the management of storage areas and the upkeep of work sites, particularly during reactor outages. Reactor 1 undergoing decommissioning Bugey 1 is a Gas-Cooled Reactor (GCR). This first-generation reactor functioned with natural uranium as the fuel, graphite as the moderator and it was cooled by gas. The Bugey 1 reactor is an “integrated” GCR, whose heat exchangers are situated inside the reactor vessel beneath the reactor core. In March 2016, in view of the technical difficulties encountered, EDF announced a complete change of decommissioning strategy for its definitively shut down reactors. In this new strategy, the planned decommissioning scenario for all the reactor pressure vessels involves decommissioning “in air” rather than “under water” as initially envisaged. Through ASN Chairman’s resolution CODEP-CLG-2020-021253 of 3 March 2020, further to the change in EDF’s decommissioning strategy, ASN requires EDF to complete the decommissioning operations on the building and equipment that are not necessary for decommissioning of the reactor pressure vessel, by 2024 at the latest. ASN considers that the Bugey 1 reactor decommissioning and vessel characterisation operations are proceeding with a satisfactory level of safety. ACTIVATED WASTE CONDITIONING AND INTERIM STORAGE FACILITY The Activated waste conditioning and interim storage facility (Iceda), which constitutes BNI 173, is intended for the conditioning and storage of various categories of radioactive waste on the Bugey site (in the Ain département). It is designed to accept, condition and store: • low-level long-lived graphite waste (LLW-LL) from the dismantling of the Bugey 1 reactor, which is destined – after interim storage – for near-surface disposal in a facility whose concept is still being studied; • activated metallic intermediate-level long-lived waste (ILW-LL) from the operation of the in-service power plants, for example parts which have spent time near the reactor core, such as control rod clusters, destined for deep geological disposal after interim storage; • some low-level or intermediate-level short-lived waste (LL/ILW-SL), called “deferred transfer” waste, intended for above-ground disposal but requiring a period of radioactive decay ranging from several years to several decades before being accepted at the Aube repository (CSA – BNI 149), operated by the French National Radioactive Waste Management Agency (Andra). The installations and activities to regulate comprise: • Nuclear Power Plants operated by EDF: • Bugey (4 reactors of 900 MWe), • Cruas-Meysse (4 reactors of 900 MWe), • Saint-Alban (2 reactors of 1,300 MWe), • Tricastin (4 reactors of 900 MWe); • the nuclear fuel fabrication plants operated by Framatome in Romans‑sur‑Isère; • the “nuclear fuel cycle” plants operated by Orano on the Tricastin industrial platform; • the Tricastin Operational Hot Unit (BCOT) of EDF, undergoing decommissioning; • the High Flux Reactor (RHF) operated by the Laue-Langevin Institute in Grenoble; • the Activated waste conditioning and storage facility (Iceda) on the Bugey nuclear site and the Bugey Inter-Regional Warehouse (MIR) for fuel storage operated by EDF; • reactor 1 undergoing decommissioning at the Bugey NPP operated by EDF; • the Superphénix reactor undergoing decommissioning and its auxiliary installations; • the Ionisos irradiator in Dagneux; • the international research centre of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), situated on the French-Swiss border; • small-scale nuclear activities in the medical sector: •23 external-beam radiotherapy departments, •6 brachytherapy departments, •23 nuclear medicine departments, • 122 facilities using fluoroscopy-guided interventional procedures, • 164 computed tomography scanners in 109 facilities, • some 10,000 medical and dental radiology devices; • small-scale nuclear activities in the industrial, veterinary and research sectors: •1 synchrotron, • about 490 veterinary practices (surgeries or clinics), •33 industrial radiography agencies, • about 600 users of industrial equipment, • about 75 public or private research units; • activities associated with the transport of radioactive substances; • ASN-approved laboratories and organisations: •3 organisations and 8 agencies approved for radiation protection controls, • 11 organisations approved for taking radon activity concentration measurement. Chapter 7 p. 204 Chapter 8 p. 240 Chapter 9 p. 270 ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2023 37 Regional overview of nuclear safety and radiation protection • AUVERGNE‑RHÔNE‑ALPES •
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