ITER: first inspection on the site of a foreign supplier. ASN underlines the improvements to be made to the monitoring of the subcontractor chain.

On 19^th December 2013, ASN performed the first inspection abroad, in the plant of a company responsible for manufacturing certain segments of the ITER facility’s vacuum containment¹. The inspection took place in Italy (Monfalcone, Friuli).

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The ASN inspectors checked the ITER Organisation’s oversight of the project subcontractors involved in the manufacture of these components. They in particular examined the steps taken to ensure that the safety requirements are met by the entire subcontractor chain.

For the manufacture of these segments, the subcontractor chain is as follows:

• the ITER Organisation: nuclear licensee responsible for the safety of its facility;
• the agency (called the “European domestic agency”) tasked by the European partners in the ITER project with the supply of this part of the vacuum containment: tier 1 subcontractor;
• the Italian industrial consortium (group of industrial firms responsible for manufacturing this part of the vacuum containment): tier 2 subcontractor;
• the subcontractors and suppliers of the industrial consortium (other industrial firms from various European countries): tier 3 subcontractors and higher;

The nuclear licensee is responsible for the safety of its facility. By virtue of the French regulations, when it has external subcontractors carry out activities with a safety impact, it is obliged to monitor them, whatever their level, to ensure compliance with the applicable safety requirements.

ASN underlines the transparency demonstrated by the licensee during the inspection operations and during the technical exchanges with the inspectors.

Following the inspection, ASN considers that the ITER Organisation needs to reinforce monitoring of the subcontractors as a whole. The inspectors observed deviations, which have no influence on the safety of the facility, in that manufacturing has not yet started. ASN will ensure that corrective steps are taken to prevent these deviations occurring during future manufacturing, whether for the vacuum containment or for the other components playing a role in the safety of the facility.

1.The vacuum containment is where the fusion reaction takes place. It forms the first safety barrier and plays a vital role in the containment of radioactive substances. This containment will have an inside diameter of six metres, a width of just over nineteen metres and a height of eleven metres and will weigh more than 5,000 metric tons.