The CENTRACO low-level waste processing and packaging centre (BNI 160), located in Codolet near the Marcoule site (Gard), is operated by the SOCODEI company.

SOCODEI has begun to look at ways of expanding its scope of operations, given the need to reposition itself in the low-level waste management sector, particularly since ANDRA's VLL waste repository opened. This strategy requires modification of the creation authorisation (DAC), revision of the SOCODEI water intake and effluent discharge licence (ARPE) and ASN approval of the new CENTRACO safety reference system. So that the necessary additional studies can be carried out to enable it to expand the scope of operations of its installation, SOCODEI initially asked for a five-year postponement in startup of the installation. This extra time will be used for technical and regulatory review of the simultaneous modification of the DAC and the ARPE. Given the nature of the modifications envisaged by SOCODEI, the dossiers will be subject to a public inquiry.

The operators of nuclear research installations find themselves in a particular situation: on the one hand, they must comply with stringent constraints to satisfy safety requirements and, on the other hand, they must satisfy researchers seeking increasingly flexible working conditions.

In this context, and at the request of the ASN, the CEA has in recent years set up a system of internal authorisations which enables it to assume more fully its responsibility as nuclear operator for minor operations which do not compromise the installations' safety demonstrations. This system of internal authorisations was approved by the ASN in 2002 and gradually extended. The aim is eventually for it to cover most CEA installations. More generally, and along the same lines, the ASN in 2005 looked at issues linked to organisational and human factors in nuclear research installations, and defined future procedures for this field, particularly by ensuring that the licensees learn the lessons from installation operating experience.

The ASN has a mixed opinion of how the CEA operates its installations. It considers that the CEA needs to take better account of nuclear safety and radiation protection priorities upstream of its investment budget decisions, and develop its internal capacity for assessing the safety of its installations. The ASN also believes that the CEA needs to progress further in reviewing the safety of its installations, with respect both to review preparation - by providing the ASN with a more reliable forecast of the future of the installations - and to compliance with the ten-yearly frequency of these reviews. Finally, the CEA must exercise greater stringency in meetings its commitments to the ASN, particularly with regard to improving the safety of the older installations.

The ASN also continued its work to provide a regulatory framework, especially in the form of guides. It finalised the periodic safety review guide for the CEA's BNIs, prepared a draft guide for monitoring research reactor core maintenance outages, which should be finalised in 2006, and prepared a draft guide for research reactor core management.

Finally, 2005 was marked by decisions to create new public research installations, primarily ITER. The ASN, with its technical support organisation the IRSN, will be in charge of reviewing the nuclear safety and radiation protection aspects of the authorisation procedures for these installations.