ASN Report 2018

• Production of waste packages intended for existing disposal facilities The waste package producers prepare an approval application file based on the waste acceptance criteria of the disposal facility that is to receive the packages. Andra delivers an approval formalising its agreement on the package manufacturing process and the quality of the packages. Andra verifies the conformity of the packages with the delivered approvals by means of audits and monitoring actions on the package producers’ premises and on the packages received at its facilities. • Waste packages intended for projected disposal facilities With regard to disposal facilities currently being studied, the waste acceptance criteria have of course not yet been defined. Andra therefore cannot issue approvals to govern the production of packages for LLW-LL, HLW or ILW-LL waste. Under these conditions, the production of packages of these types of waste is subject to ASN approval on the basis of a file established by the waste producer and called “conditioning baseline requirements”. This file must demonstrate that on the basis of existing knowledge and the currently identified requirements of the disposal facilities being studied, the packages display no unacceptable behaviour. This provision also avoids delaying waste retrieval and conditioning operations. • Checks and inspections Alongside Andra’s surveillance of approved packages, ASN checks that the licensee correctly applies the requirements of the approval and has a satisfactory command of the packaging processes. For waste packages intended for disposal facilities still being studied, ASN is particularly attentive to ensuring that the packages comply with the conditions of the issued conditioning approvals. ASN also ensures through inspections that Andra takes the necessary measures to verify the quality of the packages accepted in its disposal facilities. This is because ASN considers that Andra’s role in the approvals issuing process and in monitoring the measures taken by the waste package producers is vital in guaranteeing package quality and compliance with the safety case of the waste repositories. 2.1.3  –  Developing recommendations for sustainable waste management ASN issues opinions on the studies submitted under the PNGMDR. ASN also gives the Government its recommendations on the radioactive waste management facilities. 2.1.4  –  Developing the regulatory framework and issuing prescriptions to the licensees ASN can issue ASN regulations. Thus, the provisions of the Order of 7 February 2012 which concern the management of radioactive waste have been set out in ASN resolutions mentioned earlier relative to waste management in BNIs and the packaging of waste. The latter resolution, for example, dated 23 March 2017, addresses the conditioning of radioactive waste and the conditions of acceptance of the radioactive waste packages in the disposal basic nuclear installations. Its aim is to specify the safety requirements in the various stages of a management route. This resolution has been applicable since 1 July 2018. More generally, ASN issues requirements relative to the management of waste from the BNIs. These requirements are set out in ASN resolutions which are subject to public consultation and published on its website. ASN indicates certain waste management requirements in two Guides: Guide No.18 relative to the management of radioactive effluents and waste produced by a nuclear activity licensed under the Public Health Code, and Guide No. 23 relative to the BNI waste zoning plan (see points 1.2.1 et 1.2.2). Lastly, ASN is consulted for its opinion on draft regulatory texts relative to radioactive waste management. 2.1.5  –  Evaluation of the nuclear financial costs The regulatory framework designed to ring-fence the financing of nuclear facility decommissioning costs or, for radioactive waste disposal facilities, the final shutdown, maintenance and monitoring costs, in addition to the cost of managing spent fuel and radioactive waste, is described in chapter 13 (see point 1.4). 2.1.6  –  ASN’s international action in the area of waste ASN participates in the work of WENRA which aims to harmonise nuclear safety practices in Europe by defining “reference safety levels” which must be transposed into the national regulations of its member countries. In this respect, the WGWD (Working Group on Waste and Decommissioning) is tasked with developing reference levels for the management of radioactive waste and spent fuel, and for the decommissioning of nuclear facilities. The ASN resolutions enable, among other things, these reference levels to be transposed into the general regulations applicable to BNIs. In 2017, following the work already carried out on storage, disposal and decommissioning, ASN participated in finalising the development of reference levels for the conditioning of radioactive waste. In 2018, ASN presented the way in which the WENRA safety reference levels for waste packaging were set out in the French regulations. ASN will have to provide a few further substantiations in 2019, but WENRA considers that the large majority of the safety requirements are already present in the French regulations. ASN also tracks the transposition of the reference levels in the WENRA member countries. ASN moreover represents France on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Waste Safety Standards Committee (WASSC), whose role is to draft the international standards, particularly concerning the management of radioactive waste. It also takes part in the work of ENSREG (European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group) group 2 which is responsible for subjects relative to radioactive waste management. A meeting of this working group was organised in Paris in 2018, along with a visit to the CEA Fontenay-aux-Roses facilities to illustrate the waste management issues on a site undergoing decommissioning. In 2017, ASN coordinated the authoring of the French national report on the implementation of the obligations of the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management. This report underwent a peer review in Vienna in May 2018. The peers showed a distinct interest in the French approach, underlining in particular the quality of the French procedure, the coherence of its policy, the quality of the regulatory framework and the priority given to safety through the recognition of eight areas of good performance. They suggested that France should remain attentive to the safety of some of the older storage facilities. European Directive 2011/70 establishing a community framework for the responsible and safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste moreover requires that 366  ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2018 14 – RADIOACTIVE WASTE AND CONTAMINATED SITES AND SOILS