Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur The CEA Cadarache centre operates numerous installations which vary in their nature and their safety implications. At the Cadarache centre, ten installations are in final shutdown status, nine are in operation and one is under construction. ASNR has started or is continuing the examination of the periodic Safety Review Guidance Files (DOR) or the concluding reports for 16 of the 20 installations: Pégase and Cascad, Cabri, Rapsodie, STE, Masurca, ATUe, MCMF, LECA, STAR, the storage park, Phoebus, Lefca, Chicade, Cedra, Magenta and Agate, and issued its conclusions on the review of Cabri. When reviewing these reports, ASNR is particularly attentive to the robustness of the proposed and deployed action plans. It ensures that the installations are in conformity with the applicable regulations and that the risks and adverse effects are effectively controlled. In addition, in December 2025, the licensee Stellaria submitted a request to the Minister for the creation of a BNI called “ALPHA”, which is currently being reviewed by ASNR (see chapters 9 and 11 of the full ASNR Report). Pégase‑Cascad facility – CEA centre BNI 22 comprises two separate facilities, Pégase and Cascad: • the Pégase reactor entered service on the Cadarache site in 1964 and was operated for about ten years. CEA was authorised by a Decree of 17 April 1980 to reuse the Pégase facility for the storage of radioactive substances, in particular spent fuel elements stored in a pool. The Decree of 4 September 1989 obliges CEA to apply to ASNR every ten years for authorisation to prolong the dry storage of irradiated fuel in Cascad; • the Cascad facility, authorised by a Decree of 4 September 1989 modifying the Pégase facility and operated since 1990, remains in service, dedicated to the dry storage of irradiated fuel in wells. In December 2024, CEA sent ASN the safety review guidance files for the Pégase and Cascad facilities. ASNR issued its opinions on these two dossiers in 2025. The reports on the conclusions of the periodic safety reviews must be submitted by 30 October 2027 at the latest. The public consultation on the decommissioning file for the Pégase facility, submitted to the Minister for Nuclear Safety in 2020, was also held in 2025. As part of the DECAP project for the removal of araldite-encapsulated fuel from storage, ASNR noted that CEA had complied with the technical requirement set out in resolution CODEP-CLG-2017-006524 by completing the first transport of a fuel container from Pégase to Cascad in March 2025. The inspections carried out by ASNR focused on the monitoring of outside contractors, static and dynamic containment, and external hazards. ASNR considers that the level of nuclear safety and radiation protection of BNI 22 is satisfactory in these areas. However, there is still room for improvement: the traceability of technical inspections of activities that are important for protection is still inadequate, particularly for periodic inspections and tests; the analysis of operational experience feedback from the monitoring and surveillance plans of outside contractors needs to be improved; and the criteria to be verified during periodic inspections need to be better formalised. In 2026, ASNR will remain vigilant about the continuation of DECAP operations, as well as the completion of internal transport to Cascad. Cabri research reactor – CEA centre The Cabri reactor (BNI 24), created on 27 May 1964, is intended for conducting experimental programmes aiming to achieve a better understanding of the behaviour of nuclear fuel in the event of a reactivity accident. The reactor has been equipped with a pressurised water loop since 2006 in order to study the behaviour of the fuel at high combustion rates in accident situations of increasing reactivity in a Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR). Since January 2018, a test programme called “CIP” (Cabri International Program) is in progress in the facility; this programme began in the early 2000s and necessitated substantial modification and safety upgrading work on the facility. The CIP test programme and the electronic component irradiation tests continued in 2025 with the completion of the programme’s final CIP test on 13 October 2025. In 2025, ASNR’s review of the 2017 safety review was finalised. ASNR’s conclusions (resolution and follow-up letter) were sent to the licensee on 12 June 2025. The requirements are essentially linked to control of the seismic and fire risks, but also to the ageing of the facility. ASNR considers that the level of safety and radiation protection is satisfactory for the inspected areas of operation, external hazards, material modifications and internal transport. The licensee will have to consolidate strategy for the retrieval of the sodium waste and contaminated sodium still present at the BNI, which must be disposed of according to a schedule yet to be produced. Finally, once the CIP test campaign, which ended in October 2025, has been completed, CEA will have to undertake the work and maintenance required to ensure that the reactor continues to operate in the long term. The file on the repair of the hodoscope, following a change of technical solution, is due to be submitted to ASNR at the beginning of 2026. At the same time, ASNR is examining reduced operating conditions for the reactor, proposed by CEA, to allow operator training activities to continue in the meantime. Rapsodie research reactor – CEA centre The Rapsodie reactor (BNI 25) is the first sodium-cooled Fast-Neutron Reactor (FNR) built in France. It operated from 1967 to 1978. A sealing defect in the reactor pressure vessel led to its final shutdown in 1983. Decommissioning operations were subsequently undertaken, but have been partially stopped further to a fatal accident in 1994 during the washing of a sodium tank. The Decommissioning Decree was signed on 9 April 2021. This Decree sets the perimeter of the facility and regulates, until 2030, the operations for treating the sodium from the reactor through to introducing air into the vessel containing it. The fuel has been unloaded from the core and evacuated from the facility. Furthermore, a large part of the radioactive fluids and components have been removed, and the reactor vessel is contained. The reactor pool has been emptied, partially cleaned out and decommissioned and the waste containing sodium has been removed. The decommissioning work involving the characterising, repackaging and removal of waste packages continued in 2025. The polar crane was renovated as part of the preparations for the secondary sodium reprocessing operations at the Rapsodie reactor, known as “Recure Na”. The application to carry out this project was sent to ASNR under Article R. 593-70 of the Environment Code. CEA has also announced a new schedule that will see these operations completed in 2052 instead of 2030, the deadline laid down in the decommissioning decree. As CEA is unable to meet the deadline laid down in the decree, the licensee will have to submit a request for the decree to be amended. Operation “Pétole”, which consists in placing in final shutdown status and removing the equipment involved in the dynamic containment of the cleaned-out hot cells, ended in 2025. The licensee submitted its periodic safety review guidance file at the end of December 2022. Further to the examination of this file, ASNR asked the licensee to take certain additional points into account in the periodic safety review report, submitted to ASNR on 21 May 2025. ASNR considers that the level of nuclear safety and radiation protection at this facility will be satisfactory in 2025, particularly with regard to waste management, safety management and the management of chemical products, which will be inspected in 2025. 90 ABSTRACTS – ASNR Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2025
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