ASN Report 2017

380 ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2017 Chapter 13  - Nuclear fuel cycle installations Other facilities are needed for the operation of the Basic Nuclear Installations (BNI) mentioned above, more particularly Socatri, which is responsible for the maintenance and decommissioning of nuclear equipment, as well as the treatment of nuclear and industrial effluents from the companies of the Areva group at Tricastin. 1.1 The front-end fuel cycle To produce fuels that can be used in the reactors, the uranium ore must undergo a number of chemical transformations, from the preparation of the “yellow cake” through to conversion into uranium hexafluoride (UF 6 ), the form required for enrichment. These operations take place primarily on the Tricastin site, in the Drôme and Vaucluse départements , also known as the Pierrelatte site. 1.1.1 The facilities on the Tricastin site With a view to simplifying the legal organisation of the Areva Group, a process to merge the subsidiaries of Areva present on the Tricastin site had been initiated in 2012, so that Areva NC could become the licensee of all the BNIs there. This process was completed for the Comurhex BNI in 2013. The process to change the licensee at Socatri, initiated in 2013, was suspended at the request of Areva NC in 2014. It resumed in 2016 and could be completed in 2018. In December 2017, Areva NC also asked to take charge of operating the Eurodif and Georges Besse II BNIs. Moreover, the BNI licensees on the Tricastin platform asked ASN on 18th April 2016 for authorisation to modify their organisations, with the creation of joint management systems. This change is part of the Areva Group’s competitiveness plan and follows on from the “Tricastin 2012” project to pool the site resources. The application aims to achieve an integrated organisation by creating management structures common to all the BNIs on the site for the production, maintenance and decommissioning activities of the facilities on the platform. This modification would also lead to a reorganisation of the management in charge of safety and the environment. During the course of the ongoing investigation, made particularly complex by the governance of the platform, ASN will ensure that the technical capabilities of the platform licensees are on a par with their safety responsibilities. On the Tricastin site, Areva NC operates: ཛྷ ཛྷ the TU5 facility (BNI 155) for conversion of uranyl nitrate UO 2 (NO 3 ) 2 produced by reprocessing spent fuel into uranium sesquioxide (U 3 O 8 ); ཛྷ ཛྷ the W plant (ICPE within the perimeter of the BNI) for converting depleted UF 6 into U 3 O 8 ; ཛྷ ཛྷ the Comurhex facility (BNI 105) for converting uranium tetrafluoride (UF 4 ) and UF 6 ; ཛྷ ཛྷ a defence BNI (DBNI) which more particularly operates the nuclear materials storage areas, virtually all of which are for civil uses. Areva NC TU5 facility and W plant - BNI 155 U 3 O 8 is a stable solid compound making storage of uranium safer than in liquid or gaseous form. BNI 155, called TU5, can handle up to 2,000 tonnes of uranium per year, which allows all the UO 2 (NO 3 ) 2 from the Areva plant at La Hague to be processed. Once converted, the uranium from reprocessing is placed in storage on the Areva NC Tricastin site. The periodic safety review report for BNI 155 was submitted to ASN on 28th November 2014. The conclusions of the review of this file will be issued during the course of 2018. 8,500 t. 7,500 t. 1,000 t. 1,000 t. 1,000 t. 110 t. 120 t. 10 t. Plutonium 940 t. Reprocessed uranium Fuel fabrication Enrichment 1 st conversion 2 d conversion Interim storage Spent MOX interim storage Extraction of ore Interim storage pending final disposal MOX fabrication Fission products Enriched uranium Technological waste Depleted uranium 120 t. Spent MOX fuels Nuclear reactor Flows expressed in tons / year THE FUEL cycle