DAMPIERRE‑EN‑BURLY NUCLEAR POWER PLANT The Dampierre-en-Burly NPP is situated on the right bank of the Loire river, in the Loiret département, about 10 km downstream of the town of Gien and 45 km upstream of Orléans. It comprises four 900 MWe nuclear reactors which were commissioned in 1980 and 1981. Reactors 1 and 2 constitute BNI 84, and reactors 3 and 4 BNI 85. The site accommodates one of the regional bases of the Nuclear Rapid Intervention Force (FARN), the special emergency response force created by EDF in 2011 following the Fukushima Daiichi NPP accident (Japan). 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 the nuclear safety performance of the Dampierre-en-Burly NPP to be far below the national average. The radiation protection and environmental performance is broadly in line with ASN’s general assessment of the EDF plants. With regard to nuclear safety, the site implemented a plan of rigour following the significant deterioration in operational management performance observed in 2022. Several measures aiming to improve the rigour of the service responsible for operational management, particularly as regards the General Operating Rules (RGEs), were thus applied during 2023. Although management of the periodic tests, which was very poor in 2022, has improved, ASN considers that the plan of rigour is not yet fully effective given that it has not led to a significant improvement in the safety results. In effect, the number of significant events reported during the year was among the highest of the EDF reactor fleet, with causes similar to those observed in 2022 (organisational deficiencies linked to the shortcomings in the documentation and in communication between the operational management teams, inadequate knowledge of the RGEs). ASN will conduct an in-depth inspection in June 2024 in order to carry out a detailed appraisal of the site’s safety performance. With regard to maintenance of the facilities, the site’s performance has improved and is now in line with the national average, in a high workload context due to the fourth tenyearly outages of reactors 2 and 3. The site must nevertheless be particularly attentive to the maintenance of the backup diesel generator sets and the safety injection system, which are subject to regular equipment failures. Radiation protection performance, a recurrent weakness at the Dampierre-en-Burly NPP, improved in 2023 and is now in line with the national average. Although the site has one of EDF’s lowest rates of worker contamination, progress must still be made in the management of the radiological work regimes, in the performance of the radiological checks of equipment leaving controlled areas (numerous hot spots were detected in 2023 on the site’s roadways) and in the management of the marking out of limited-stay areas. ASN will keep a close track on these points in 2024. The environmental protection performance of the Dampierre‑en‑Burly NPP significantly improved in 2023, particularly in the management of the microbiological risk and the discharges of copper and zinc in the liquid effluents. The site must nevertheless continue its work to improve the containment of hazardous substances and undertake the necessary studies to increase the number of effluent storage tanks to take into account the effects of climate change and the problems of ageing of the existing tanks. The year 2023 saw significant labour inspection demands in the social field due to an apparently deteriorated social dialogue between management and the personnel representative bodies, in view of the safety alerts filed by members of the NPPs social and economic committee. ASN also notes the persistence of significant deviations in the area of electrical risks, particularly concerning the performance of the regulatory verifications and taking any measures found necessary when these verifications are carried out. Lastly, concerning the EXplosive ATmospheres (ATEX) risk, ASN considers that the correction of the identified anomalies must be improved, as the scheduling of their correction is not always effective. The installations and activities to regulate comprise: • Basic Nuclear Installations: • the Belleville‑sur‑Loire NPP (2 reactors of 1,300 MWe), • the Dampierre‑en‑Burly NPP (4 reactors of 900 MWe), • the Saint‑Laurent‑des‑Eaux site: the NPP in operation (2 reactors of 900 MWe), and the 2 Gas-Cooled Reactors (GCRs) undergoing decommissioning and the irradiated graphite sleeve storage silos, • the Chinon site: the NPP in operation (4 reactors of 900 MWe), the 3 GCRs undergoing decommissioning, the Irradiated Material Facility (AMI) and the Inter-Regional Fresh Fuel Warehouse (MIR); • small-scale nuclear activities in the medical sector: • 8 external-beam radiotherapy departments, • 3 brachytherapy departments, • 11 nuclear medicine departments, • 32 centres using interventional procedures, • 38 computed tomography scanners, • some 2,700 medical and dental radiology devices; • small-scale nuclear activities in the industrial, veterinary and research sectors: • 10 industrial radiography companies, • about 330 industrial, veterinary and research radiography devices; • activities associated with the transport of radioactive substances; • ASN-approved laboratories and organisations: • 2 organisations approved for radiation protection controls, • 4 laboratories approved for taking environmental radioactivity measurements. Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 ABSTRACTS – ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2023 49 Regional overview of nuclear safety and radiation protection • CENTRE-VAL DE LOIRE •
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