The Decommissioning Decree was signed on 9 April 2021. This Decree sets the perimeter of the facility and regulates, until 2030, the operations for treating the sodium from the reactor through to introducing air into the vessel containing it. An authorisation application file will be submitted to ASNR for the reactor vessel washing operation. The decommissioning operations, such as decommissioning of the reactor block and of the civil engineering structures, shall be covered by an update of the decommissioning file. The decommissioning work involving the characterising, repackaging and removal of waste packages continued in 2024. In order to be able to start the operations to treat the secondary sodium from the Raspodie Reactor, baptised “Recure Na”, CEA has submitted an authorisation request to ASN in application of Article R. 593-70 of the Environment Code. CEA has nevertheless announced changes in the scenario of this operation, which would imply extending its duration by more than 20 years. CEA will therefore be unable to meet the deadline of 2030 for completion of these operations as prescribed in the Decree. The licensee must submit a request to modify this Decree, which will be examined by ASNR. Operation “Pétole”, which consists in placing in final shutdown status and removing the equipment involved in the dynamic containment of the cleaned-out hot cells, continued. The work should be completed in 2025. The licensee submitted its DOR at the end of December 2022. Further to the examination of this file, ASN asked the licensee to take certain additional points into account in the periodic safety review report, whose submission is planned for 2025. ASN considers that the level of nuclear safety and radiation protection of this facility in 2024 is broadly satisfactory with regard to the monitoring of the condition of the systems, equipment and buildings, external hazards and the management of fire loads, themes that were inspected in 2024. Solid Waste Treatment Station – CEA CENTRE BNI 37 of CEA Cadarache historically comprised the Active Effluents Treatment Station (STE) and the Waste Treatment Station (STD), grouped into a single installation. As the CEA wishes to ensure continued operation of the STD and proceed with the final shutdown of the STE, BNI 37 was divided into two BNIs: 37-A (STD) and 37-B (STE) by ASN resolutions CODEP-DRC-2015-027232 and CODEPDRC-2015-027225 of 9 July 2015. These records were made further to the Orders of 9 June 2015 defining the perimeters of these two BNIs. At present, the STD is CEA’s only civil BNI licensed for the packaging of intermediate-level, long-lived (ILW-LL) radioactive waste before it is stored in the Cedra facility (BNI 164) pending transfer to a deep geological repository. This situation makes the STD an indispensable part of the CEA’s decommissioning and waste management strategy. In early 2024, several renovation operations were carried out in the facility as planned under the “Pagode” project, with duplication of the equipment for measuring discharges at an outlet, and the installation of minipiles. Continued operation of the STD is conditional upon full accomplishment of the Pagode project work. However, a significant event was notified in 2024 concerning the discovery of civil engineering defects in the structure of the buildings. The discovery of these defects resulted in the stoppage of operation of the facility and of the renovation work. In particular, the treatment of intermediate-level waste (ILW) and the compacting of low-level waste (LLW) and ILW are suspended. The activities of waste package reception, measurements, cement injection and shipments of LLW waste which are not impacted by the discovered defects are continuing, within the limit of the available storage areas. Restarting the suspended activities is conditional upon conducting additional studies to assess the resistance of the facility’s civil engineering structures. The results of these studies are expected in the first quarter of 2025. The elements examined in the first investigations on the concrete structures do not, at this stage, enable a conclusion to be reached regarding the facility’s resistance in an accident situation. In view of the significance of the civil engineering defects, ASN rated this event level 1 on the INES scale. The end-of-works deadline for the Pagode project, set at 30 June 2028, should thus be called into question in view of the investigations and compensatory measures to implement. The inspections ASN conducted in July and October 2024 show that the situation appears to be broadly under control. However, further information is required, more specifically concerning the implementation of the compensatory measures decided upon, the safety analysis carried out further to this significant event and the consolidated schedule for planned resumption of operating activities. In view of the facility’s degraded mode of operation necessary for management of the civil engineering defects, and a reassessment of the safety case, ASN considers that it is vital to restore the level of safety and radiation protection of the facility. The other themes inspected in 2024 concerning equipment qualification, meeting commitments and fire protection, are broadly satisfactory. Active Effluents Treatment Station – CEA CENTRE The Active Effluents Treatment Station (STE – BNI 37-B) has been shut down since 1 January 2014. The CEA submitted the decommissioning file for this facility in December 2021. Examination of the facility decommissioning file continued in 2024. The public consultations required by the regulations should be held in 2025 on the basis of a file integrating ASN’s demands resulting from its examination of the file’s admissibility. The complementary information requests concern the licensee’s financial capacity, skills management, the decommissioning plan, the impact study and the safety case. As part of the Decommissioning Preparation Operations (DECPROs), the licensee is continuing the removal of waste and preparing the worksite for repairing the basemats of building 322. ASN resolution CODEP-DRC-2024-024338 of 9 October 2024 sets the applicable requirements in view of the conclusions of the periodic safety review of 2017. CEA has thus renovated the domes of the tanks in building 322, commissioned a new system for measuring atmospheric discharges and is preparing the new fire control panel installation worksite. ABSTRACTS – ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2024 91 Regional overview of nuclear safety and radiation protection PROVENCE‑ALPES‑CÔTE D’AZUR
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