ASN Report 2017

408 ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2017 Chapter 14  - Nuclear research and miscellaneous industrial facilities An inspection was carried out by ASN at the headquarters of the European domestic agency, Fusion For Energy (F4E), in Barcelona (Spain) to evaluate the means deployed by Iter Organization for its surveillance of F4E. Several points for improvement were identified by ASN, notably with regard to management of the F4E team seconded to the Cadarache site. In 2017, work continued on the facility, more particularly with civil engineering work on the first above-ground level of the Tokamak reactor, the positioning of the overhead cranes in the assembly hall and the construction of several auxiliary buildings (utilities, cryogenic plant, etc.). The equipment necessary for the facility is currently being manufactured or procured, in particular for the vacuum chamber, the cryostat, the superconductor coils, the water detritiation system and the cooling systems. At this stage in the project, ASN considers that the worksite is being run satisfactorily. In 2017, ASN also continued to examine the various safety files concerning the design and construction of equipment, systems, buildings, in particular the safety analysis file transmitted in 2017, detailing the envisaged modifications to the pressure limiter system in the vacuum chamber and to the facility’s cooling system. ASN inspections revealed a significant improvement in the assimilation of the safety requirements by the ITER licensee and improved dissemination down the subcontracting chain. Nonetheless, ASN wants to see more attentive monitoring of the activities important for the protection of certain batches, more specifically concerning the buildings and utilities, given the complex international organisation of the project. Finally, in April  2017, the ASN Commission called the ITER Director General to a hearing on: ཛྷ ཛྷ the progress of the construction of the facility and the main upcoming milestones, notably including the assembly of the Tokamak reactor; ཛྷ ཛྷ changes linked to the project organisation; ཛྷ ཛྷ the steps taken to improve the monitoring of outside contractors. ASN inspection of the ITER Tokamak reactor construction site, May 2017