Читать книгу Industrial and Medical Nuclear Accidents - Jean-Claude Amiard - Страница 49

France has more than 70 basic civil nuclear facilities (INBs): “Laboratories, Plants, Dismantling Facilities and Waste Treatment, Storage or Storage Facilities” called LUDDs. Unlike the nuclear power plants operated by EDF, LUDD-type installations are very diverse (nature of activities, nature of risks) and are operated by many companies, the main ones being Areva (now Orano), CEA, ANDRA and EDF [IRS 09b]. The safety of nuclear installations is never definitively established and it should be aimed at continuous improvement, taking into account new knowledge and feedback. The IRSN also regularly capitalizes, using appropriate tools, on the feedback from the analysis of events that occurred in France in LUDD-type installations as well as the most significant incidents that occurred abroad in installations of the same type.

From the overall examination of the events reported for the years 2005–2008, it first appears that there was a significant increase (approximately 45%) in the number of events reported to the ASN in 2008 compared to that in the previous 3 years. In terms of consequences, it appears first of all that no events reported to the ASN for the years 2005–2008 had any serious consequences for workers, the public or the environment [IRS 09b]. ASN [ASN 12] has devoted an issue of the journal Contrôle to this subject.

Among the incidents that have occurred in nuclear study centers (CENs), some can pollute the aquatic environment. Thus, in 1974, the Grenoble center contaminated the groundwater with radioactive antimony, but the expertise that established that the maximum allowable concentration (MAC) had been exceeded is disputed by the center’s management. The use of radioactive sources gives rise to too many incidents or even accidents resulting from their escape into the environment and their recovery by the public, unaware of their danger. For example, the ASN was informed by a letter dated September 7, 2007 by the CEN in Saclay of the loss of a source of promethium 147 as part of a dust measuring device, the dismantling of which had been initiated in June 2006. Accidents related to radioactive sources will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 5.

When the CEN plutonium technology workshop (ATPu) at Cadarache (Bouches-du-Rhône) was dismantled in 2009, the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) considered that the residual dust deposits at the end of operation were significantly underestimated. Indeed, this workshop contained some 39 kg of plutonium, and not 8 kg, as initially assessed by the CEA. The ASN was only informed of this undervaluation on October 6, 2009, although the facts had been known since June of the same year. It classified the incident as a level 2 and suspended the dismantling of the ATPu for several months [AMI 13a].