Centre‑Val de Loire Region The Orléans division regulates nuclear safety, radiation protection and the transport of radioactive substances in the 6 départements of the Centre Val de Loire region. ASN conducted 151 inspections in the Centre-Val de Loire region in 2021, of which 119 were in nuclear facilities of the EDF sites of Belleville‑sur‑Loire, Chinon, Dampierre‑en‑Burly and Saint‑Laurent‑des‑Eaux and 32 in small-scale nuclear activities. ASN also carried out 51 days of labour inspections in the four nuclear power plants. In 2021, 12 significant events rated level 1 on the INES scale were reported to ASN. ASN inspectors issued one violation report in the exercise of their oversight duties. Belleville-sur-Loire nuclear power plant The Belleville‑sur‑Loire NPP is situated in the north‑east of the Cher département, on the left bank of the river Loire, at the crossroads of four départements (Cher, Loiret, Nièvre and Yonne) and two administrative regions (BourgogneFranche‑Comté and Centre‑Val de Loire). The NPP comprises two 1,300 MWe reactors commissioned in 1987 and 1988, which constitute BNIs 127 and 128 respectively. ASN considers that the performance of the Belleville-surLoire NPP is in line with ASN’s general assessment of the EDF plants in the areas of nuclear safety, the environment and radiation protection. In the operational management of the facilities, the site maintained the generally satisfactory performance levels of 2020 with regard to nuclear safety. ASN nevertheless considers that improvements are required in performance of the periodic tests and the quality of the documentation used by the operational management teams. With regard to maintenance of the facilities, the performance of the NPP has to be improved, particularly in view of the unexpected events detected in 2021, most of which resulted from the preceding shutdowns, particularly during the ten-yearly outages of 2019 and 2020. Improvements in management of the fire risk on the site were made in 2021. The site had only one reactor refuelling outage in 2021. With two outages in 2022, one of which is a maintenance one outage, ASN considers that the site must be attentive to the maintenance of the facilities and management of the fire risk, areas in which recurrent deviations had been observed during the ten-yearly outages of the preceding years. ASN considers that the radiation protection performance of the Belleville‑sur‑Loire NPP is satisfactory and has improved since last year. It underlines the integration of experience feedback in the shutdown of reactor 2 and the defining of the monitoring programmes, the appropriateness of the radiation protection actions and the site’s responsiveness in dealing with the problems of radiological cleanliness during the reactor outages. It nevertheless emerges that the optimisation of activity dosimetry can be improved, as can the management of radiological cleanliness as a whole. The recommendations of the radiation protection skills centres are not yet applied to sufficient effect. In the area of the environment, ASN considers that effluent management, waste management and the monitoring of discharges in normal operating conditions are satisfactory. The inspections conducted in 2021 also revealed improvements in the management of f ire extinguishing water retention, despite the need for further progress in this area. A public inquiry into the site’s request to implement a new system to prevent the proliferation of pathogenic organisms and to change the authorised limits of certain discharges was opened in December 2021. With regard to labour inspection, and in a context of stabilisation of the Covid-19 pandemic, the monitoring of accidents and near-accidents and the performance of the regulatory electrical inspections (and lifting of the anomalies detected) were the predominant subjects in 2021, the latter being part of a collective country-wide procedure. They revealed firstly a need to analyse some accidents or near-accidents in greater depth, and secondly, weaknesses in the site’s organisation to permit the smooth running of the electrical inspections or to coordinate these inspections between the different EDF entities (particularly as concerns the tertiary buildings). 52 ABSTRACTS – ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2021 REGIONAL OVERVIEWOF NUCLEAR SAFETY AND RADIATION PROTECTION
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