With regard to labour inspection, ASN considers that the licensee must make improvements in the verification of the electrical installations and the protection of certain areas against the risk of falling from height. Paluel nuclear power plant The Paluel NPP operated by EDF in the municipality of Paluel in the Seine‑Maritime département, 30 km south-west of Dieppe, comprises four 1,300 MWe PWRs, commissioned between 1984 and 1986. Reactors 1, 2, 3 and 4 constitute BNIs 103, 104, 114 and 115 respectively. The site accommodates one of the regional bases of the Nuclear Rapid Intervention Force (FARN) created by EDF in 2011, further to the Fukushima Daiichi NPP accident. Its role is to intervene in pre-accident or accident situations, on any NPP in France, by providing additional human resources and emergency equipment. ASN considers that performance of the Paluel NPP with regard to nuclear safety and environmental protection is broadly in line with the general assessment of the EDF plants. ASN considers that the radiation protection performance stands out positively with respect to its general assessment of the EDF plants. The last two ultimate backup diesel generator sets were commissioned for the NPP reactors 1 and 2 in early 2021, in compliance with ASN resolution 2020-DC-0692 of 28 July 2020. With regard to operation and operational management of the reactors, ASN considers that the knowledge and command of the general operating rules during the restarting phases must be improved. For this reason, ASN will be particularly attentive to the depth of the analyses performed when anomalies are encountered on safety important components. Along with this, various significant events related to equipment lockout/tagout deficiencies should make the licensee question the rigour of its practices. ASN does nevertheless observe a notable drop in significant safety events related to control of the reactors. The f ire outbreak on the main transformer of reactor 1 also showed the fast response of the operating teams to an incident situation, despite shortcomings in the management of the extinguishing water. With regard to maintenance, ASN considers that the site’s performance in 2021 remains below average. Several inspections during maintenance outages highlighted deviations concerning the fastening and installation of equipment which the licensee had nonetheless deemed compliant. In addition, the analysis of several safety-related significant events, one of which led to a retained primary system leak, revealed a lack of preparation and shortcomings in the analyses of the risks of the activities. Improvements are therefore required, firstly through more rigorous preparation of the work interventions, and secondly by the operators duly appropriating the activities before carrying them out. Lastly, the reactor 1 refuelling and maintenance outage was marked by the discovery of traces of corrosion on the steam generator tubes. ASN inspected the specific installation operations of new welded plugs caps and considers that they were carried out properly. With regard to radiation protection performance, ASN notes an improvement compared with 2020. The overall doses received by the workers during maintenance outages in 2021 were all below the initial estimated evaluations. The inspections conf irmed the good upkeep of the work sites and, more generally, satisfactory management of the contamination risk. Nevertheless, improvements are required in the compliance with procedures for accessing limited stay areas and in the preparation of activities with high radiation exposure risks. With regard to environmental protection, ASN notes stable performance and a reduction in uncontrolled greenhouse gas discharges. Given shortcomings observed in fire extinguishing water management during the fire on the main transformer of reactor 1, ASN carried out an on-site exercise simulating THE INSTALLATIONS AND ACTIVITIES TO REGULATE COMPRISE: ཛྷ Basic Nuclear Installations: • the NPPs operated by EDF, namely Flamanville (2 reactors of 1, 300MWe), Paluel (4 reactors of 1, 300MWe) and Penly (2 reactors of 1, 300MWe), • the Flamanville 3 EPR reactor construction site, • the Orano spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at La Hague, • the Andra Manche repository (CSM), • the National large heavy ion accelerator (Ganil) in Caen; ཛྷ small-scale nuclear activities in the medical sector: • 8 external-beam radiotherapy departments (27 devices), • 1 proton therapy department, • 3 brachytherapy departments, • 12 nuclear medicine departments, • 50 centres performing fluoroscopy-guided interventional practices, • 70 computed tomography scanners, • some 2,100 medical and dental radiology devices; ཛྷ small-scale nuclear activities in the veterinary, industrial and research sectors: • about 450 industrial and research centres, including 20 companies with an industrial radiography activity, • 5 particle accelerators, including 1 cyclotron, • 21 laboratories located chiefly in the universities of the region, • 5 companies using gamma ray densitometers, • about 260 veterinary surgeries or clinics practising diagnostic radiology, 1 equine research centre and 1 equine hospital centre; ཛྷ activities associated with the transport of radioactive substances; ཛྷ ASN-approved laboratories and organisations: • 9 head-off ices of laboratories approved for taking environmental radioactivity measurements, • 1 organisation approved for radiation protection controls. ABSTRACTS – ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2021 73 REGIONAL OVERVIEW OF NUCLEAR SAFETY AND RADIATION PROTECTION NORMANDIE
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