Les cahiers de l’ASN brochure

In France, 20 nuclear reactors with a power of 1,300 MWe, spread over 8 sites, will reach their 40th year of operation within the next few years. On this occasion, these reactors will undergo a periodic safety review*, which will be able to define the conditions that will determine their continued operation for a further 10 years.

This first issue of “Les Cahiers Histoire de l'ASN” is devoted to the subject of “nuclear accidents”. Although some nuclear accidents are well known, to the extent moreover that the name of the site is now part of everyday language, others represent distant memories or have been completely forgotten. This is the case with two accidents at Saint-Laurent-des-Eaux described in this issue. We have a duty to build up a collective memory that can be used by future generations.

The lifetime of a basic nuclear installation (BNI) comprises four main phases: design, construction, operation and decommissioning.

Rated level 7, the highest on the international nuclear events scale (INES), the accident which struck the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant had considerable human and environmental consequences.

EDF’s 32 reactors of 900MWe are the oldest reactors in operation in France. After 40 years of service, can their continued operation be considered and under what conditions?

In what conditions can the 900 MWe nuclear power plants, which are the oldest in the French nuclear fleet, continue to operate? How to guarantee management of the ageing of materials and systems after 40 years of operation?