LES ACTIVITÉS NUCLÉAIRES : RAYONNEMENTS IONISANTS ET RISQUES POUR LA SANTÉ ET L’ENVIRONNEMENT 2.1.5 – Evaluation of the nuclear financial costs The regulatory framework designed to secure the financing of nuclear facility decommissioning costs or, for radioactive waste disposal facilities, the final shutdown, maintenance and surveillance costs, in addition to the cost of managing spent fuel and radioactive waste, is described in chapter 12, point 1.4. 2.2 Periodic safety reviews of radioactive waste management facilities BNI licensees, including for radioactive waste management facilities, carry out periodic safety reviews of their facilities in order to assess the situation of the facilities with respect to the rules applicable to them and to update the assessment of the risks or adverse effects, notably taking account of the state of the facility, the experience acquired during operation, and the development of knowledge and rules applicable to similar facilities. The diversity and frequently unique nature of each radioactive waste management facility lead ASNR to adopt an examination procedure that is specific to each periodic safety review. In this context, ASNR is currently examining several periodic safety reviews of radioactive waste management facilities. They concern: ∙two BNIs operated by CEA: the Cedra (BNI 164) and Agate (BNI 171) facilities on the Cadarache site; ∙one BNI operated by EDF: BNI 74 comprising the Saint‑Laurent‑ des‑Eaux storage silos; ∙one BNI operated by Cyclife France on the Marcoule site: the Centraco facility for waste treatment by melting or incineration (BNI 160); ∙two BNIs operated by Orano: the clean-up and uranium recovery facility (IARU - BNI 138) on the Tricastin site and the Ecrin facility (BNI 175) on the Malvési site. 2.2.1 – Periodic safety reviews of radioactive waste management support facilities The periodic safety reviews of the oldest facilities such as BNIs 35, 37-A, 74 and 118 present particular challenges. The Saint‑Laurent‑des‑Eaux silos (BNI 74) present safety risks, particularly in view of their inventories. These safety reviews must address the control of the waste storage conditions, including legacy waste, the WRP of this waste with a view to removal via the dedicated route and scheduled Post-Operational Clean-Out (POCO) of the buildings. In relation with these challenges, the safety reviews must ensure that the impacts of discharges into the environment (soils, groundwater, or seawater for certain BNIs) are controlled. ASN released its conclusions on the periodic safety review of the waste conditioning facility 37-A on 4 January 2023 and those for the BNI 35 safety review on 6 May 2025. For the most recent facilities, as is the case with Cedra and Chicade, the periodic safety reviews highlight more generic problems. The resistance of the buildings to internal and external hazards (earthquake, fire, lightning, flooding, aircraft crash) is one of the important aspects. 2.2.2 – Periodic safety reviews of radioactive waste disposal facilities The safety reviews of the CSM (BNI 66) and the CSA (BNI 149) have the particularity of addressing control of the risks and adverse effects over the long term, in addition to reassessing their operational control. Their purpose is therefore more specifically to update, if necessary, the scenarios, models and long-term assumptions in order to confirm satisfactory control of the risks and adverse effects over time. The periodic safety reviews of these two facilities thus highlight the need for increased knowledge of the long-term impacts associated with the toxic chemicals contained in some waste and of the impacts of the radionuclides on the environment (flora and fauna). ASN issued its conclusions on the second periodic safety review of the CSA on 25 July 2022 and of the CSM on 29 April 2024. The successive safety reviews must also serve to detail the technical measures planned by the licensee to control the adverse effects of the facility over the long term, notably for the systems for covering these facilities which contributes to the final containment of the disposal concrete blocks. The durability of the CSM cover and the preservation of the site memory for future generations are the two predominant themes of the periodic safety review of a radioactive waste disposal facility. Lastly, these safety reviews provide the opportunity of detailing, as time goes by, the measures the licensee plans to implement to ensure the long-term surveillance of the behaviour of the disposal facility. 2.3 CEA’s waste management strategy and its assessment by ASNR Types of waste produced by CEA CEA operates diverse types of facilities covering all the activities relating to the nuclear cycle: laboratories and plants associated with fuel cycle research, as well as experimental reactors. CEA also carries out numerous decommissioning operations. Consequently, the types of waste produced by CEA are varied and include more specifically: ∙waste resulting from operation of the research facilities (protective garments, filters, metal parts and components, liquid waste, etc.); ∙waste resulting from legacy waste retrieval and packaging operations (cement-, sodium-, magnesium- and mercury-bearing waste); ∙waste resulting from final shutdown and decommissioning of the facilities (graphite waste, rubble, contaminated soils, etc.). HIGHLIGHT No. 3 The unavailability of certain support facilities: the case of BNI 37-A (STD) BNI 37-A (the Solid waste treatment station or STD), operated by CEA on the Cadarache site, is a packaging facility for intermediate-level long-lived (ILW-LL) waste. It receives and packages solid radioactive waste generated by the Cadarache site and other centres (including Saclay and Fontenay-aux-Roses). The packages produced are then evacuated to the Cedra storage facility pending future shipment to Cigéo. This facility plays a crucial role in the retrieval and packaging of legacy waste (WRP) and the decommissioning of CEA’s BNIs, being this licensee’s only civil BNI that is able to process ILW-LL waste. In May 2024, CEA declared a Significant Safety Event (ESS) classified as level 1 on the INES scale, following the discovery of defects in the civil engineering of an encapsulation mortar delivery room during renovation work on the facility (under the “PAGODE” project), which included civil engineering reinforcement operations. Investigations carried out following this significant event showed that defects of the same nature also affected other premises in the facility. The investigations also showed that these defects, which date back to the construction of the facility, called into question the BNI’s ability to withstand external hazards (earthquake, tornado). Operations at BNI 37-A were progressively shut down, until complete shutdown at the end of 2024. In view of the degraded safety status of the facility, in December 2025 the licensee submitted a dossier to ASNR setting out the conditions for restarting the facility and then operating it on a transitional basis for a limited period to enable a permanent solution to be defined. The shutdown of this facility will have an impact on the management of ILW-LL waste flows from the CEA’s other facilities, with, in particular, storage at producers’ premises pending a definitive solution. In the absence of another facility capable of packaging CEA’s ILW-LL waste, this situation illustrates the fragility of CEA’s waste management strategy (see point 2.3) due to the lack of alternative scenarios in the event of the unavailability of certain unique facilities. ASNR Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2025 371 13 12 11 10 09 08 01 05 02 06 03 07 04 A / Z
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NjQ0NzU=