Continued examination of the Cigéo dossier Following the January 2023 submission by the National Radioactive Waste Management Agency (Andra) of the creation authorisation application dossier for Cigéo, a geological disposal project for high- and intermediatelevel, long-lived waste (HLW and ILW-LL), ASN – with the support of IRSN – began a technical examination of the dossier, which will end with an ASNR opinion in 2025 and a public inquiry in 2026. This technical examination continued in 2024, notably with two meetings of the Advisory Committee of Experts for Waste dealing with the basic data and hypotheses used to establish the safety case, and then with safety during the operating phase. On these two thematic subjects, this work enabled an evaluation of the extent to which the dossier presented by Andra complied with the requirements for the possible issue of the authorisation decree, but also identification of the additional data that will have to be provided in order to successfully pass the future milestones in the life of the facility. Andra will thus have to provide additional data before the beginning of excavation work, currently scheduled for 2035, notably on the safety case for operation of bituminous waste disposal, closure of the ILW-LL vaults and operation of the high-level vaults. The long-term safety issues of the repository, following its closure, are studied in 2025 as part of the third and final phase of the technical examination of the dossier. At this stage, ASNR considers that there are no obstacles to the continuation of the examination procedure in accordance with the envisaged calendar, which schedules work for a period of five years. As described earlier, with a view to continued operation of the reactors for 50 to 60 years and the creation of six EPR 2 reactors, the adaptability of Cigéo was evaluated and nothing has as yet emerged to rule this out. However, the adaptation of the facility to changes such as the service life extension of the reactors beyond 60 years, the construction of eight additional EPR 2, or a fleet of SMRs and/or fast neutron reactors, would be evaluated after publication of the Creation Authorisation Decree on the basis of future adaptability studies, once the corresponding scenarios have been defined. A contrasting situation in the medical field In 2024, the level of radiation protection remained at a satisfactory level in the medical field, despite a contrasting situation and points warranting particular attention that have persisted for several years. The context remains marked by pressure, notably on human resources, and constantly rising activity levels. Working organisations are increasingly complex, with pooling of resources, multi-site working, increasingly frequent use of outside contractors and increasing outsourcing of radiation protection skills, including among the most advanced facilities. This situation is creating new technical, operational and organisational constraints. In this context, ASN alerts all the stakeholders to the risk of a lesser assimilation of the radiation protection issues and recalls the need to evaluate the radiation protection impact of any organisational change. Certain significant events and the findings made during inspections in 2024 confirm the weak signals indicative of a context that is prejudicial to radiation protection, as already mentioned in 2023. ASN recalls that the main guarantee of a high level of radiation protection lies in a robust radiation protection culture, promoted by trained professionals. This culture must be regularly maintained in order to adapt good practices to the new risks, maintain an efficient optimisation approach and prevent the repetition of previous incidents. ASN still observes an unsatisfactory situation regarding fluoroscopy guided interventional practices carried out in the operating theatre. In this field, where the indications and the number of patients concerned are increasing and diversifying, optimisation actions and the conformity of the facilities with the layout rules are essential to managing the radiation protection issues. Enforcement measures have been taken in the past two years owing to notable deficiencies in the registration of X-ray emitting equipment, as well as persistent deviations concerning the conformity of the premises and patients and personnel radiation protection training. In radiotherapy, target errors, notably wrong-side errors, were again observed in 2024. Nationwide operating experience feedback was collected, in collaboration with the professional organisations, and shared with the professionals, so that these admittedly rare errors are not repeated. In 2024, a radiotherapy accident with serious consequences affected a patient whose radiotherapy antecedents had not been taken into account. In the light of progress in the treatment of cancers, ASN draws the attention of the professionals to the increase in the cases of patients who could benefit from a second radiotherapy treatment and the over-exposure risks associated with these situations. In nuclear medicine, two particular situations can pose problems and are made more frequent by the development of Internal Targeted Radiotherapy (ITR). This involves on the one hand care of the patient in the event of extravasation during administration of the treatment; on the other, the waste management route when waste contaminated by radioactivity produced at the home of patients after out-patient treatment triggers the alarms on the detection portals at the entrance to the collection Editorial by the Commission 6 ABSTRACTS – ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2024
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