CEA Most French nuclear research facilities have been historically operated by the Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). Although some are still contributing to CEA’s scientific and technical research programmes, a good number of them have been shut down and CEA is faced with major challenges in order to decommission them and manage the legacy waste satisfactorily. ASN considers that the safety of the facilities operated by CEA is still under control but that the results of the projects to maintain the facilities in operation, decommission shutdown facilities, and legacy WRC projects still differ widely and remain exposed to potential major contingencies. Despite the gradual reinforcement of the project management practices, performance remains limited by the resources available and by the operational capacity of the contractors in the sector. In addition, the operational reality of the worksites is nearly always more complex than anticipated, to the extent that an entire project is sometimes called into question, or at the very least the deadlines are significantly pushed back. In this respect, ASN considers that management of these projects remains a point warranting particular attention. Finally, ASN deplores the fact that there was no significant improvement in 2024 regarding the organisation of emergency situations management, and the monitoring of outside contractors. CEA’s decommissioning and materials and waste management strategy In order to keep track of the progress of the projects with the highest priority for safety, the authorities and CEA set up regular and high-level reporting of the deadlines with the greatest safety implications; ASN underlines the commitment by the CEA managers to the oversight and monitoring of these milestones. In 2024, CEA notably continued with the removal of a certain number of radioactive substances from its facilities that had been definitively shut down, which helped substantially reduce the residual risks. CEA notably started up the DECAP process to allow the moving of araldited fuel from storage in the Pégase facility to the Cascad facility and completed the removal of fuel stored in the structures and pools of BNI 72. ASN however observes that CEA is encountering considerable difficulties with conducting the decommissioning operations on the facilities and with WRC, as well as with meeting the deadlines initially set. These delays are notably caused by technical or contractual difficulties. ASN also notes that its alerts regarding certain weaknesses in CEA’s waste and effluent management strategy have led to no improvements. CEA is proposing no large-scale measures to safeguard this management, which is to a large extent based on unique facilities, for which there is no operational alternative, and which therefore each determine the satisfactory performance of the numerous projects using them. In this respect, ASN is particularly attentive to the measures to be put into place by CEA following the civil engineering defects found in 2024 on the waste treatment station (BNI 37-A) located in the Cadarache centre. ASN also notes that CEA’s annual budget to finance provisions for nuclear costs is limited. If it wishes to finance unexpected spending for priority projects, this budgetary constraint could cause CEA to smooth the budget for lower priority projects, thus delaying their performance schedules. Research facilities in operation There are safety issues around the research facilities in operation linked to the development of their R&D activities (support for the current and future nuclear fleet), their activities to support other CEA facilities, and their being maintained in safe and operational conditions in compliance with the prescriptions stipulated further to their periodic safety reviews (renovation and seismic reinforcement works, removal of radioactive substances and waste from storage, etc.). As with the decommissioning and waste management projects, ASN observes that CEA is encountering major difficulties with meeting the deadlines initially set for the refurbishment of old facilities or the removal of legacy substances and waste present in these facilities. The main new research facility project sponsored by CEA, the Jules Horowitz Reactor (JHR), is being carried out satisfactorily and transparently with regard to the safety issues. BNI operations Risk control and emergency management ASN considers that the safety of the facilities is satisfactory. During the course of the inspections carried out in 2024, it nonetheless identified certain topics which require improvements. This mainly concerns the performance of periodic checks and tests, waste reconditioning operations, the safety of shielded cell handling operations and the traceability of outside contractor monitoring, and analysis of the results. For the year 2024, the number of significant safety- related events notified by CEA remains of the same order of magnitude as in 2023. A large number of these notifications concern non-compliance with the frequency of performance of the periodic checks and tests mentioned in the BNI general operating rules. CEA shall pay particular attention to these subjects. In 2024, for the Cadarache site, CEA notified ASN of further delays in the construction of all the emergency management buildings with enhanced robustness, in order to take account of the lessons learned from the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi NPP (Japan). These delays can mainly be explained by contractual difficulties being encountered by CEA and are currently being investigated by the ASN departments. With regard to the Saclay site, CEA has finalised start-up of the facility housing the robust emergency situations management premises. In 2025, ASN will check that these premises are operational. With regard to the Marcoule centre, examination of the reinforcements envisaged by CEA or the emergency situations management building is continuing. Finally, the inspections carried out in 2024 showed that the CEA’s national emergency management system needs to be improved, notably in terms of formalisation, traceability and control. ASN Assessments 26 ABSTRACTS – ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2024
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