ASN considers that in 2024 the level of nuclear safety and radiation protection of the LECA-STAR facility is broadly satisfactory, particularly concerning the measures taken by the licensee to ensure static and dynamic containment, the monitoring of outside contractors and the management of nuclear waste. Tracking of the actions further to LECA’s periodic safety review is satisfactory, but tracking of the radiological inventory in accordance with the permanent requirements of the resolution of 10 July 2020 needs to be improved. ASNR will also continue to pay close attention to the safety of handling operations in the shielded cells. Solid radioactive waste storage area – CEA CENTRE BNI 56, declared in January 1968 for the disposal of waste, is used for storing legacy solid radioactive waste from the Cadarache centre. It comprises three pools, six pits, five trenches and hangars, which contain in particular ILW-LL waste from the operation or decommissioning of CEA facilities. BNI 56 is one of the priorities identified by the CEA in its new decommissioning and waste management strategy. Examination of the facility decommissioning file continued in 2024. The public consultations required by the regulations started at the end of 2024 and will continue until mid-2025. The licensee has also submitted its strategy for retrieval of waste from the trenches, in accordance with its commitment. The Waste Retrieval and Packaging (WRP) operations in the BNI continued in 2024. CEA has completed the transfer of all the stainless steel packages of intermediate-level waste from pit 6 to BNI 164 (Cedra); these packages were the subject of a “major safety commitment” (grand engagement de sûreté – GES). ASNR will remain attentive in 2025 to the repackaging and removal of the waste resulting from the retrieval of packages whose content was not blocked in a cement matrix. The inspections carried out by ASN in 2024 focused primarily on management of the waste produced by the facility, the methods of protection against external hazards, radiation protection and the conformity of the facility with its baseline requirements, which were updated further to the last periodic safety review. ASN considers that the organisational setup put in place by the licensee enables a broadly satisfactory level of nuclear safety and radiation protection to be achieved on these themes. It nevertheless remains attentive to the radiological cleanliness of the BNIs’s stormwaters and to the progress of the work necessary for the next repackaging operations. Prior to the next periodic safety review of the facility, CEA submitted a DOR to ASN in 2024 presenting the methodology, the scope of the verifications and studies, and the conditions governing performance of the conformity review and the safety reassessment. Phébus research reactor – CEA CENTRE The Phébus reactor (BNI 92) is an experimental pooltype reactor with a power rating of 38 Megawatts thermal (MWth) which functioned from 1978 to 2007. Phébus was designed for the study of serious accidents affecting light water reactors and for defining operating procedures to prevent core melt-down or to mitigate its consequences. Decree 2024-256 requiring CEA to proceed with the Phébus decommissioning operations was published on 22 March 2024. CEA plans starting the decommissioning operations at the end of the five year surveillance phase following publication of this Decommissioning Decree. The licensee has submitted the safety analysis report and the decommissioning RGEs which were authorised by ASN in August 2024. The periodic safety review file submitted in 2018 is currently being examined by ASNR. The facility has been empty of all radioactive material since December 2021, in accordance with the priority objectives of the DECPROs. The start-up neutron source is stored in the reactor building pool pending the identification of a disposal route. ASN conducted an inspection of Phébus in 2024 and considers that the level of nuclear safety and radiation protection of the facility is broadly satisfactory. Laboratory for research and experimental fabrication of advanced nuclear fuels – CEA CENTRE Commissioned in 1983, the Laboratory for research and experimental fabrication of advanced nuclear fuels (Lefca – BNI 123) was a laboratory tasked with conducting studies on plutonium, uranium, actinides and their compounds with the aim of understanding the behaviour of these materials in the reactor and in the various stages of the “fuel cycle”. In 2018, Lefca finalised the transfer of part of its research and development equipment to the Atalante laboratories (BNI 148) at Marcoule. Now Lefca has only one activity, the characterisation and conditioning of liquid and solid wastes. After having considered shutting down the facility definitively, CEA has been planning – since the end of 2021 – to keep the facility operational and use it for the repackaging and storage of nuclear materials. This new activity will require the facility’s authorisation decree to be modified. The licensee submitted its safety review concluding report in December 2023. It is currently being examined by ASNR and presents the prospect of continued operation of the facility. ASN estimates that the level of nuclear safety and radiation protection of the facility in 2024 is broadly satisfactory as far as occupational radiation protection and waste management – the two themes inspected – are concerned. 94 ABSTRACTS – ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2024 Regional overview of nuclear safety and radiation protection PROVENCE‑ALPES‑CÔTE D’AZUR
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