ASN Report 2017

338 ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2017 Chapter 12  - EDF Nuclear Power Plants In 2017, ASN and the approved organisations carried out: ཛྷ ཛྷ 12,925 inspections, including 3,136 document inspections concerning design, to check the manufacture of the NPE intended for the Flamanville EPR, which represented 17,398 man/days in the plants of the manufacturers, as well as of their suppliers and subcontractors; ཛྷ ཛྷ 3,881 inspections, including 999 document inspections concerning design, to check the manufacture of the equipment spares intended for the NPP reactors in service, which represented 4,404 man/days in the plants of the manufacturers, as well as of their suppliers and subcontractors. Most of these inspections were performed by the approved organisations, under the supervision of ASN. 2.2.2 Evaluation of the design and manufacture of NPE Irregularities in the manufacturing plants 2017 was marked by the analysis of the consequences of the detection of irregularities in 2016, of varying scope and severity, in several NPE manufacturing plants. This was in particular the case in the Areva NP Creusot Forge plant, where these practices had continued for several decades. Considering that these irregularities reveal unacceptable practices and that the industry needs to take fundamental measures to restore a high level of quality in the supply chain, ASN asked Areva NP to conduct a review of the files of the components manufactured by Creusot Forge, to analyse the reasons the irregularities were not detected and to develop a quality and safety culture to guarantee the expected irreproachable level of quality. At the same time, ASN asked EDF to analyse the causes of the breakdown in Areva NP monitoring and to assess the steps taken by Areva NP. These requests were extended to all the Areva NP plants. Satisfactory compliance with these requests is an essential precondition for the resumption of manufacturing in the Creusot Forge plant. In conjunction with this step and together with the organisations, ASN is examining the handling of the deviations detected during the files review when evaluating the conformity of new equipment. A similar action is also carried out for the components incorporated into equipment in service (see the box concerning the Creusot Forge plant on the previous page). Reinforcing justification of the design of NPE ASN has regularly observed that the justifications and demonstrations provided by the manufacturers with regard to NPE regulations, more particularly concerning the correct design of this equipment, are still unsatisfactory. The industrial firms, EDF and Areva NP in particular, therefore took fundamental measures as of the first half of 2015 to change their practices and bring them into line with the regulatory requirements. ASN monitored these measures, most of which were carried out within the framework of the French Association for NSSS design, construction and monitoring rules (AFCEN) and involved the majority of the profession. ASN considers this approach to be a positive one and in 2016 and 2017 recognised the appropriate nature of certain publications from AFCEN. It will be attentive to ensuring the completion of this approach, scheduled for the end of 2018. Manufacture of a shell.