PENLY NUCLEAR POWER PLANT The Penly NPP operated by EDF in the Seine-Maritime département in the municipality of Penly, 15 km north-east of Dieppe, comprises two 1,300 MWe PWRs commissioned between 1990 and 1992. Reactor 1 constitutes BNI 136 and reactor 2 BNI 140. ASN considers that the nuclear safety performance of the Penly NPP is broadly in line with its general assessment of the EDF plants, and that its radiation protection and environmental protection stand out positively with respect to ASN’s general assessment of the EDF nuclear fleet. With regard to nuclear safety, ASN considers that operating rigour is improving slightly, despite a few persistent weaknesses. In effect, the reactor restarting phases have been the subject of several notifications of significant safety events due to shortcomings in the alignment operations, deficiencies in the analysis of periodic tests or shortcomings in the exhaustiveness of the operating documents. ASN considers that particular attention must be paid to the quality of preparation of the activities and the associated documents, particularly the routine operation activities (periodic tests, alignments, etc.), and to taking better account of social, organisational and human factors. In 2023, the licensee finalised the programme of checks and expert assessments and the repairs on the systems concerned following the detection of cracks linked to stress corrosion. 2023 also saw the end of the ten-yearly outage of reactor 1, with the performance of the hydrostatic test of the main primary system and the reactor building containment test, both of which went well. The maintenance operations carried out during the reactor 2 outage were well managed on the whole. ASN nevertheless found shortcomings in the traceability of maintenance operations, which had not been detected during the internal checks. Greater rigour is expected on this subject. Consequently, ASN considers that the NPP must continue its efforts to avoid maintenance non-qualities due to deficiencies in the ergonomics or completeness of the documents, or to organisational weaknesses. In the area of radiation protection, ASN considers that progress has been made in organisational aspects, particularly with the setting up of centres of competence in radiation protection. The inspections confirmed the good upkeep of the work sites and, more generally, satisfactory management of the contamination risk. Improvements are nevertheless required in the conformity of zone transition areas and activity preparation. As for environmental protection, ASN considers that the Penly NPP has obtained satisfactory results in waste management and notes an improvement in the measures taken to control discharges of ozone-depleting gases. Monitoring of the rod control cluster guide tube storage area must nevertheless be improved. In an unannounced exercise, ASN observed that the organisation of the NPP teams for managing a non-radiological emergency situation was satisfactory. With regard to labour inspection, ASN observes that the workers generally know and comply with the safety requirements. However, inspections have occasionally revealed deviations in the prevention of life-endangering risks (anoxia, lifting, etc.), and the prevention of fire risks. FLAMANVILLE 3 EPR REACTOR CONSTRUCTION WORKSITE Following issuing of the Creation Authorisation Decree (DAC) 2007-534 of 10 April 2007 and the building permit, the Flamanville 3 EPR reactor has been under construction since September 2007. Since December 2023, the site has been working on the preparation for reactor fuel loading. Broadly speaking, ASN notes that a substantial amount of work was carried out in 2023, be it towards the completion of the facility, the preparation and performance of the hot requalification tests, or the deployment of operating organisations and the building of personnel skills. ASN will nevertheless remain attentive to the completion of the pre-commissioning activities, particularly regarding completion of the facility, the startup tests and drafting of the operational operating procedures. In 2023, EDF continued the analysis and correction of deviations, including finalising of repairing welds on the main secondary systems, with completion of pipe welding, performance of non-destructive tests, stress-relief heat treatments and the hydrostatic tests of these systems. In addition to the inspections of the manufacturer and the mandated organisation, ASN conducted a campaign of four inspections of EDF in 2023, focusing on these activities and their monitoring by EDF. ASN considers that the activity organisation and monitoring set up by the various parties involved is satisfactory with respect to the high standard of quality targeted for these welds, thereby making it possible to meet the break preclusion baseline requirements. ASN observed in 2022 that work was still required in many areas to finalise the setting up of the facilities, (notably addressing deviations, performing certain start-up tests, making several equipment modifications and finishing activities). In this respect, ASN has asked EDF to submit periodic progress reports on the completion of the facilities and has initiated a verification campaign through six dedicated inspections. Furthermore, part of the in-depth inspection of May 2023 was devoted to this subject to check that EDF had taken into account the tasks still to be carried out and ensure that their completion was scheduled for before reactor commissioning. ASN noted that EDF had implemented a dedicated organisation and taken appropriate corrective actions in response to its requests. ASN thus considers that a lot of work has been carried out on the subject over the last few years, enabling a satisfactory finished state to be achieved. It will nevertheless remain attentive to the completion of the tasks that need to be completed before commissioning. 72 ABSTRACTS – ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2023 Regional overview of nuclear safety and radiation protection • NORMANDIE •
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