ASN Report 2017

371 ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2017 Chapter 12  - EDF Nuclear Power Plants rules, a study of waste management in the facility, the on-site emergency plan, the decommissioning plan and an update of the facility’s impact assessment. Following a preliminary examination, ASN confirmed that all the documents required by the regulations were indeed present, but it considered that additional demonstrations were needed to enable ASN to rule on a possible commissioning authorisation. ASN however initiated technical examination of the subjects for which most of the information was available, although it did submit some requests on certain points. In June  2017, ASN received updated versions of the commissioning authorisation and partial commissioning authorisation files for Flamanville reactor 3. Some elements still need to be provided before ASN is able to issue a position statement. A letter of acceptability was issued in response to the partial commissioning authorisation, listing these elements. In parallel with its examination of the partial commissioning authorisation application file, ASN will in 2018 be updating its 2010 resolutions defining the limits and procedures for environmental discharge of liquid and gaseous effluents for the nuclear reactors on the Flamanville site. Finally, examination of the general operating rules continued in 2017. Opinions of the Advisory Committees of Experts In May and July  2017, ASN issued a position statement on the review of the accident studies for the Flamanville EPR and on the safety of fuel storage and handling in the fuel building. A GPR meeting is scheduled in 2018. It will be devoted to the latest investigations with a view to commissioning of the Flamanville EPR, more specifically the follow-up to the previous GPR sessions devoted to this reactor. On the occasion of this session, the GPR will give ASN its opinion on the Flamanville EPR safety case so that ASN can issue a position statement on the commissioning authorisation application for this reactor. A meeting of the GPESPN was devoted to the analysis of the consequences of the anomaly in the domes of the Flamanville EPR reactor pressure vessel on their serviceability (see box opposite). In addition, a GPESPN meeting will be held in the second half of the year on the deviations detected in the production of certain welds on the main steam letdown lines. Oversight of the Flamanville 3 reactor construction activities In 2017, ASN carried out twenty inspections on the Flamanville 3 construction site to monitor construction, the performance of the start-up tests and the preparedness of the teams who will be in charge of operating the reactor. These in particular concerned the following technical topics: ཛྷ ཛྷ mechanical assembly activities, notably concerning the secondary systems of the NSSS, the main primary system protection valves, the nuclear auxiliary systems, the containment mechanical penetrations, the effluent treatment systems and the equipment necessary for operation of the backup electricity generating sets; ཛྷ ཛྷ the electrical systems installation activities, including cable connections in the buildings; ཛྷ ཛྷ continued start-up tests and the corresponding organisation, in particular during the first tests of the installation as a whole; ཛྷ ཛྷ the environmental impact of the construction site; ཛྷ ཛྷ the radiation protection of workers during radiographic inspection of welds; ཛྷ ཛྷ the organisation of the future operating team for the Flamanville 3 reactor regarding safety management, drafting of operating and maintenance documentation, management of hazards, radiation protection of workers, transports and the preparation for partial commissioning of the reactor. Oversight of the Flamanville EPR engineering activities Most of the documents in support of the Flamanville 3 reactor commissioning examination having been transmitted and ASN reduced the number of inspections carried out in the engineering departments for this reactor. In 2017, ASN carried out one inspection in the EDF engineering departments in charge of the detailed design studies for the Flamanville 3 reactor, on the topic of equipment qualification for accident conditions. Labour inspectorate duties on the Flamanville 3 reactor construction site The actions carried out by the ASN labour inspectors in 2017 consisted in: ཛྷ ཛྷ performing checks on the contractors working on the site; ཛྷ ཛྷ answering direct queries from the employees; ཛྷ ཛྷ carrying out inquiries following occupational accidents; ཛྷ ཛྷ investigating or jointly investigating requests for exemptions to provisions under the labour regulations. Application of the safety rules was regularly checked. In 2017, the ASN labour inspectors also initiated and carried out a number of checks on the regulatory provisions governing transnational secondment of workers. Oversight of NPE design for the Flamanville 3 reactor During the course of 2017, ASN continued to assess the conformity of manufacture of the NPE for the main primary and secondary systems. Having observed inadequate justification and incomplete design files for this equipment, more specifically with regard to the risk assessments, choice of materials and in-service inspectability of the equipment, ASN held numerous technical meetings with Areva NP in  2013 and  2014 to define the additional data to be provided. Areva NP began a revision of all technical design documentation for this equipment in 2015, which it continued in 2016 and 2017. It plans to complete this revision in the first half of 2018. The organisations approved for assessment of NPE conformity are authorised by ASN to assist it with the examination of this design documentation.