Oversight of Research Reactors in the Southeast of France: ASN Regulatory Experience

Julien Vieuble, Carole Dormant, Pierre Perdiguier

Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (French Nuclear Safety Authority), Division de Marseille, 67/69 Avenue du Prado, 13 286 Marseille Cedex 6, France

Email of the corresponding author: [email protected]

The French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), which is an independent administrative authority, is in charge of regulating nuclear safety and radiation protection in order to protect workers, patients, the public and the environment from the risks associated with nuclear activities. ASN also contributes to the public information and the promotion of transparency and openness among stakeholders.

The key values of ASN are independence, competence, rigor and transparency, enabling its 450 staff to perform their various duties with the needed legitimacy.

ASN’s oversight covers more than 160 civil basic nuclear installations all over France. These installations are of very different varieties and sizes: nuclear power plants, research reactors, nuclear laboratories, fuel cycle facilities, and at different stages in their lives: conception, construction, operation, dismantling. ASN also oversees the safety of radioactive material transport.

The ASN division of Marseille oversees the nuclear civil activities in the southeast area of France, which covers, inter alia, the nuclear site of Marcoule (4 civil nuclear installations) and the nuclear site of Cadarache (20 civil nuclear installations).

The French public Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) has nine research reactors currently in operation: six of them are located in the southeast of France, and a new one, the Jules Horowitz reactor (JHR), is under construction on the nuclear site of Cadarache. The CEA, along with EDF and AREVA, had undertaken the Advanced Sodium Technological Reactor for Industrial Demonstration (ASTRID) project which will lead to the construction of a prototype on the Marcoule nuclear site. In the meantime, the first French fast breeder prototype reactor, PHÉNIX, which was built in Marcoule, is entering into decommissioning phase after 40 years of operation. In addition, the construction works of the future International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), located near Cadarache, have already started.

Through some 40 inspections every year, the ASN division of Marseille makes sure that each research reactor or project is given the relevant attention, depending on its own characteristics, and that the various fields of nuclear safety are regularly assessed. These include safety options review, construction works, commissioning, regulatory compliance of day-to-day nuclear operation, crisis/emergency management, periodic safety reviews, shut down, dismantling and waste management.

The division also plays an active part in the three local information committees (CLIs) which have been set up for the Cadarache and Marcoule sites as well as for the ITER project.