ASN also considers that the NPP’s performance in environmental protection has improved and is now in line with its general assessment of the EDF plants. Problems with leaks in retention structures which led to bypassing of the normal discharge routes in 2023 - without harming the environment - are still waiting for a long-term solution. ASN considers that the waste management remains at a satisfactory level; the site must nevertheless continue the actions initiated on the management of storage facilities. With regard to occupational health and safety, ASN considers the site’s results to be satisfactory, despite the high workload of the industrial programme. Appropriate measures were put in place reactively to take account of the accident levels during the year. ASN notes however that particular attention must be paid to the risks associated with lifting operations. Reactor 1 undergoing decommissioning Bugey 1 is a GCR. The first-generation reactor used natural uranium as the fuel, graphite as the moderator and was cooled by gas. The facility decommissioning operation were authorised by decree in 2008, but in 2022 EDF requested its amendment to take into account a radical change in decommissioning strategy for the GCRs. This request is currently being reviewed by the French Authority for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection (ASNR). In 2024, EDF continued the decommissioning of the buildings, equipment and systems that are not necessary for reactor vessel decommissioning in application of ASN Chairman’s resolution CODEP-CLG-2020-021253 of 3 March 2020. Today this work has been completed, apart from the demolition of some structures and the putting out of service and decommissioning of the plant for treating effluents originating from the installation, pending completion of the commissioning tests of the new replacement facility built between 2022 and 2024. Alongside this, the licensee also continued work on the installation in view of the future operations, notably by adapting certain ventilation systems and fitting out a waste sorting and conditioning unit. ASN considers that the Bugey 1 reactor decommissioning operations are proceeding under satisfactory conditions of safety and radiation protection. In the area of occupational radiation protection, the licensee must nevertheless continue its actions to control the risk of internal exposure from alpha-emitting radionuclides. Activated waste conditioning and storage facility The Activated waste conditioning and interim storage facility (Iceda), which constitutes BNI 173, is intended for the conditioning and storage of various categories of radioactive waste on the Bugey site (in the Ain département). It is designed for the reception, conditioning and storage of: ∙ low-level long-lived (LLW-LL) graphite waste from the dismantling of the Bugey 1 reactor, intended – after interim storage – for near-surface disposal in a facility which is still at the concept study stage; The installations and activities to regulate comprise: • Nuclear Power Plants operated by EDF: • Bugey (4 reactors of 900 MWe), • Cruas-Meysse (4 reactors of 900 MWe), • Saint-Alban (2 reactors of 1,300 MWe), • Tricastin (4 reactors of 900 MWe); • the nuclear fuel fabrication plants operated by Framatome in Romans‑sur‑Isère; • the “nuclear fuel cycle” plants operated by Orano on the Tricastin industrial platform; • EDF’s Tricastin Operational Hot Unit (BCOT) undergoing decommissioning; • the High Flux Reactor (RHF) operated by the Laue-Langevin Institute in Grenoble; • the Activated waste conditioning and storage facility (Iceda) on the Bugey nuclear site and the Bugey Inter-Regional Warehouse (MIR) for fuel storage operated by EDF; • reactor 1 undergoing decommissioning at the Bugey NPP operated by EDF; • the EDF Superphénix reactor undergoing decommissioning and its auxiliary installations; • the Ionisos irradiator in Dagneux; • the international research centre of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), situated on the French-Swiss border; • small-scale nuclear activities in the medical sector: • 23 external-beam radiotherapy departments, • 6 brachytherapy departments, • 23 nuclear medicine departments, • 123 centres performing fluoroscopy-guided interventional procedures, • 170 computed tomography scanners in 120 facilities, • some 10,000 medical and dental radiology devices, • small-scale nuclear activities in the industrial, veterinary and research sectors: • 1 synchrotron, • about 490 veterinary practices (surgeries or clinics), • 34 industrial radiography agencies, • about 600 users of industrial equipment, • about 75 public or private research units; • activities associated with the transport of radioactive substances; • ASN-approved organisations and laboratories: • 1 organisation and 3 agencies approved for radiation protection verifications under the Public Health Code, • 13 laboratories approved for environmental radioactivity measurements, • 11 organisations approved for taking radon activity concentration measurements under the Public Health Code. Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 ABSTRACTS – ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2024 39 Regional overview of nuclear safety and radiation protection AUVERGNE-RHÔNE-ALPES
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