ASN Report 2017

319 ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2017 Chapter 11  - Transport of radioactive substances package and anticipating how the situation could develop. Furthermore, the ASN regional division dispatches a staff member to the Prefect to facilitate liaison with the national emergency centre. At the same time, human and material resources would be sent out to the scene of the accident as rapidly as possible (radioactivity measuring instruments, medical means, package recoverymeans, etc.). The fire service teams specialising in the radioactive risk (the Mobile Radiological Intervention Units – CMIR) would be called on, along with IRSN’s mobile units, or the mobile units of certain nuclear licensees (such as CEA or EDF), which could be requisitioned by the Prefect if necessary, even if the shipment in question does not concern these licensees. As with other types of emergency, communication is an important issue in the event of a transport accident so that the population can be informed of the situation and given instructions on what to do. In order to prepare the public authorities for the eventuality of an accident involving a shipment of radioactive substances, exercises are held to test the entire response organisation that would be put into place. In 2017, ASN thus took part in a national emergency exercise simulating a rail accident involving a package of high-level waste. The office of the Prefect, the emergency services, ASN, IRSN and a carrier were involved in this exercise. 2.6 Regulation governing the transport operations within the perimeter of nuclear facilities Dangerous goods transport operations can take place on the private roads of nuclear sites, in what are referred to as “on-site transport operations”. Such operations are not subject to the regulations governing the transport of dangerous goods, which only apply on public highways. Since 1st July 2013, these transport operations have been subject to the requirements of the Order of 7th February 2012 setting out the general rules applicable to BNIs (see chapter 3). This Order requires that on-site transport operations be incorporated into the safety baseline requirements for BNIs. The on-site transport of dangerous goods presents the same risks and inconveniences as the transport of dangerous goods on the public highway. The safety of transport must be overseen with the same rigour as for any other risk or inconvenience present within the perimeter of the BNI. In 2017, ASN published guide N° 34 providing the licensees with recommendations for implementing the regulatory requirements concerning on-site transport operations. In 2017, ASN also authorised on-site transport operations for dangerous goods taking place in the EDF NPPs and within the perimeter of the Areva plant at La Hague. FOCUS Stress tests in the field of transport As radioactive substances are transported on the public highway, the possibility of an accident exceeding the regulation package design criteria (see point 2.3) cannot theoretically be ruled out. For packages transporting the most dangerous contents, the consequences for public health and safety and the environment could be significant. ASN thus expressed the desire to see the stress tests approach extended to the transport field, in the same way as was done in the BNIs. The Advisory Committee for Transport (GPT) met on 12th June 2017 to examine a methodology for applying the stress tests approach to transports. In the light of its opinion, ASN in November 2017 asked the six consignors of the packages with the most significant public health and safety or environmental protection implications: ཛྷ ཛྷ to determine the “extreme” hazards, in other words of an intensity exceeding those of the regulation tests, to which these potentially high-risk packages could be subjected, given the actual or envisaged transport conditions encountered; ཛྷ ཛྷ on the basis of a qualitative assessment, to identify the packages liable to lead to significant consequences in the event of an extreme hazard; ཛྷ ཛྷ to plan measures to mitigate these consequences, the means necessary for implementing them and the corresponding response times; ཛྷ ཛྷ to include these measures, means and times in their emergency plan and take steps to ensure that they remain valid for the future.