- 211 - COMPLEMENTARY SAFETY ASSESSMENTS OF THE NUCLEAR FACILITIES OTHER THAN NUCLEAR POWER REACTORS 1. Overview of the sites and facilities 1.1 Definition of the notion of priority facilities The French basic nuclear installations (BNI) other than the nuclear power reactors (NPP) represent 90 facilities around the country. They are of different types operated by different licensees, and comprise: the fuel cycle facilities, essentially operated by the AREVA group and its subsidiaries; these include the facilities at both the upstream end of the cycle (chemistry of uranium and production of fuel) and the downstream end (spent fuel reprocessing); the research facilities, particularly the experimental reactors but also the research laboratories. This chiefly concerns the facilities operated by the CEA and a few research organisations; a facility for manufacturing pharmaceutical radionuclides for medical purposes; the facilities involved in waste management (interim storage, treatment of waste and effluents, repositories); the facilities of all types in the decommissioning phase, particularly the EDF nuclear reactors that have been definitively shut down. Two facilities are at the project stage, namely the experimental Jules Horowitz Reactor, under construction on the Cadarache site, and the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) facility, for which the first civil engineering work began in 2010 and the creation authorisation application is currently being examined by ASN. The great diversity in the facilities results in different implications, particularly with respect to the experience feedback from the Fukushima accident. A specific approach was therefore adopted to identify which of these facilities should be treated in priority in the complementary safety assessments. This prioritisation approach consisted in identifying - among the facilities other than the nuclear reactors and considering their situation on 30 June 2011 - those representing the greatest challenges given their radiological and chemical inventory and their sensitivity to the seismic hazard, the risk of flooding or loss of the heat sink and electrical power supplies. Facilities at the end of the delicensing process - the last administrative phase after dismantling, decommissioning and post-operational cleanout - were excluded given the very low risks they represent, the hazardous substances having been completely removed from them.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NjQ0NzU=