The licensee is still experiencing difficulties in controlling its refrigerant discharges and is occasionally faced with malfunctions in its liquid or gaseous discharges. ASNR is retaining some of the points requiring particular attention from the previous year concerning the liquid contamination containment capacities, particularly soda. Performance in terms of worker safety is stable. ASNR has asked the licensee to rapidly remedy the risk situations encountered with regard to falls from height, which are still predominant in 2025. Weaknesses in risk analysis, work organisation, lockout/tagout procedures and the quality of activity preparation are recurring causes of safety events and must be improved. Despite the efforts made, there are still too many cases of accidental exposure to asbestos. Lastly, ASNR will be vigilant in ensuring that installations maintain compliance with the Labour Code requirements. Civaux nuclear power plant The Civaux NPP operated by EDF in the Vienne département, 30 km south of Poitiers in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region comprises two 1,450 MWe PWRs commissioned in 1997 and 1999. Reactors 1 and 2 constitute BNIs 158 and 159 respectively. The site accommodates one of the regional bases of the Nuclear Rapid Intervention Force (FARN) created by EDF in 2011 further to the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi NPP in Japan. Its role is to intervene in pre-accident or accident situations, on any NPP in France, by providing additional human resources and emergency equipment. ASNR considers that the performance of the Civaux NPP stands out favourably in the areas of nuclear safety and radiation protection and is in line with the general assessment of EDF’s NPPs in environmental matters. In the field of nuclear safety, ASNR considers that performance improved slightly in 2025, in a dense industrial context. The operation of the facilities remains satisfactory. The recurrence of similar significant events shows that there is still room for improvement in terms of assimilating experience feedback. Progress has been made in controlling the risk of fire: during the inspection, ASNR noted that an exercise to mobilise the operational fire brigade’s stationed guard had been successfully carried out in 2025. However, as in the previous year, there is still room for improvement in terms of controlling the risk of explosion. The condition of safety important component is satisfactory. However, ASNR expects better implementation of national procedures. Worker radiation protection is satisfactory and improving. However, there is still room for improvement. In particular, there is room for improvement in the radiation protection culture of outside contractors. Any occasional problems observed by the inspectors were quickly rectified by the licensee. ASNR considers environmental protection to be satisfactory in 2025. ASNR gives a positive assessment of liquid containment and the condition of the facilities. The site has also reduced the volumes of water treated without further use in the industrial process, limiting the use of chemicals. In terms of labour inspections in 2025, ASNR positively emphasises the site’s organisational robustness in dealing with dangerous situations, the quality of the analyses carried out following «near misses» and the sustained managerial presence in the field. However, ASNR considers that the licensee must improve compliance with the commitments made to the Labour Inspectorate. In terms of worker safety, ASNR considers that the licensee must step up its efforts to ensure that risk analyses are exhaustive, that traffic routes comply with regulations and that work premises are ventilated. Controlling the risks of legionella dispersal from the Civaux NPP: how are observations taken into account by stakeholders in ASNR resolution? The two reactors at the Civaux NPP, located on the banks of the Vienne river, are each equipped with a large cooling tower. These large towers are likely to disperse legionella into the environment. As with its other nuclear power plants subject to this risk, EDF plans to introduce a biocidal treatment involving the injection of monochloramine into the cooling circuits. This will make it possible to comply with the ASN resolution of 6 December 2016. This resolution sets two thresholds for legionella colonisation in the circuits, of 10,000 and 100,000 colonyforming units per litre (CFU/L) respectively, above which remedial and corrective action must be taken to reduce the levels of colonisation observed. As this biocidal treatment leads to chemical discharges into the Vienne river, ASNR consulted the public and local stakeholders, who expressed several unfavourable opinions. These opinions contest the need for biocidal treatment in view of the limited legionella colonisation observed at the Civaux NPP. They emphasise the impact of discharges from such treatment on the quality of the water in the Vienne, in a context where this water is already affected by industrial effluents upstream of the plant and is used downstream to produce drinking water. These opinions consider that the balance resulting from the provisions of the ASN resolution of 6 December 2016 between the need to control the risk of legionellosis and the environmental impacts of a biocidal treatment is not appropriate for the Civaux NPP given the specific characteristics of the Vienne and its upstream and downstream uses. ASNR therefore deemed it necessary to review the framework applicable to the control of Legionella colonisation, specifically for the Civaux NPP and in the light of local issues, by requiring that biocidal treatment only be applied above 100,000 CFU/L. This concession makes it possible to limit the occurrence of biocidal treatments and therefore chemical discharges into the water of the Vienne. At the same time, this concession does not call into question the prevention of the risk of legionellosis, by obliging EDF to treat its circuits as soon as 100,000 CFU/L are reached and, if this treatment is not effective, to shut down its reactors. ASNR actions to prevent radon risk Oversight actions ASNR inspected the departmental councils of PyrénéesAtlantiques (64) and Charente (16). These inspections, carried out in départements that were not priorities under the pre-2018 radon regulations, revealed discrepancies with the new regulations, which require radon testing in certain types of public access buildings, such as secondary schools. To remedy this situation, radon measurement campaigns are planned for the 2025-2026 season. Awareness-raising actions ASNR took part in a campaign to raise public awareness of radon-related risks in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques département (64), accompanied by a campaign to distribute radon detectors. This project was made possible thanks to collaboration between the Regional Health Agency (ARS), ASNR and the Centre permanent d’initiatives pour l’environnement (CPIE – an approved environmental association) Pays basque. Areas with radon potential in mainland France and the Nouvelle- Aquitaine region are shown on page 99. 86 Rn radon Nouvelle-Aquitaine ABSTRACTS – ASNR Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2025 81
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