The currently ongoing review of the periodic safety review concluding report for the LECA, which was submitted in 2024, has resulted in ASNR asking CEA for further information. In 2025, the licensee has set out the major developments and modifications proposed over the next ten years, in particular projects to ensure the long-term future of the facility (safe shutdown earthquake upgrades), to update operating and process equipment, and to continue R&D programmes. LECA will be responsible for receiving spent fuel from CEA and transferring it to the STAR facility for reconditioning. The removal from storage of fissile materials that are not associated with any research programme is continuing in accordance with the schedule set by ASNR and the commitments made by CEA further to the last periodic safety review. Following a significant event in March 2024 concerning the noncompliance of certain LECA civil engineering seismic reinforcements, ASNR requested an analysis of the generic nature of the event. The deviations detected by CEA appear to be specific to the LECA reinforcement work. By 2027, CEA has undertaken to bring the affected civil engineering structures of the LECA back into compliance. In order to ensure that the activities of outside contractors are adequately supervised, CEA has undertaken to carry out an exhaustive inspection of the welds made during the remediation work. Commissioned in 1999, the STAR facility is an extension of the LECA laboratory, designed for the stabilisation and reconditioning of irradiated fuel. CEA has sent ASNR the orientation file for the third periodic safety review of STAR in February 2025, for which the report concluding the review is due to be sent in February 2028. Examination of this file led ASNR to request additional information to be taken into account in the review conclusion report. In particular, ASNR has asked CEA to detail the major developments and modifications envisaged over the next ten years and to update the decommissioning plan. At the end of the previous review, ASNR asked that a seismic cut-off device for the general power supply (DCS) be studied. In its response, CEA did not detail the feasibility of connecting STAR to the existing LECA system. ASNR has asked for a technical and economic feasibility study to be carried out on connecting STAR to the existing DCS system at LECA. ASNR considers that in 2025 the level of nuclear safety and radiation protection of the LECA-STAR installation is satisfactory. A reassessment of the criticality risk control function was carried out in 2025 and the measures taken following the analysis of operational experience feedback from significant events and deviations in this area are awaited by ASNR. The inspectors noted that the management of certain deviations identified during the review could be improved, particularly as regards the analysis of the causes and the definition and implementation of corrective actions or their follow-up outside the defined organisation. In addition, a number of structuring actions are still in progress and could lead to the identification of new actions to be undertaken. ASNR remains vigilant with regard to the implementation of actions involving the most significant issues, some of which may have relatively distant deadlines. In the area of fire risk prevention, risk management tools appear to be under control. A number of actions arising from the update of the Fire Risk Management Study (EMRI) are to be implemented over the next few years. Solid radioactive waste storage area CEA centre BNI 56, declared in January 1968 for the disposal of waste, is used for storing legacy solid radioactive waste from the Cadarache centre. It comprises three pools, six pits, five trenches and hangars, which contain in particular ILW-LL waste from the operation or decommissioning of CEA facilities. BNI 56 is one of the priorities identified by the CEA in its new decommissioning and waste management strategy. In 2025, the facility placed the P2 pool in a safe state following resolution CODEP-MRS-2025-037042 of 27 June 2025. Work on the groundwater monitoring facilities has been completed, with the last facility due to be installed in 2025, in line with the commitments made in the periodic safety review. Waste disposal operations continued with the removal of Bayard soil, which will be completed in 2026, the retrieval of low-irradiation waste from storage, the transfer of waste from recent pits to the Cedra facility, and the removal of asbestos waste. The assessment of the decommissioning file ended in 2025. The Environmental Authority has been consulted on the file and has issued an opinion. CEA has supplemented its file, in accordance with the regulations, with a response to this opinion. The consolidated file will be submitted for the public inquiry required by the regulations in January 2026. The inspections carried out in 2025 focused on internal radioactive substance transport, support functions and power supplies, external hazards and decommissioning work. ASNR found that the transport operations were properly documented and complied with the authorised procedures. The inspection of the electrical power supplies revealed shortcomings in the analysis of a modification, leading ASNR to request cross-centre experience feedback on the management of modifications. With regard to external hazards, the arrangements in place to prevent flooding risks is fairly satisfactory, although improvements are expected in groundwater monitoring and in the management of fire extinguishing water in the event of a fire. In the light of these factors, ASNR considers that the overall level of nuclear safety and radiation protection at the facility is satisfactory in the areas monitored in 2025. Phébus research reactor – CEA centre The Phébus reactor (BNI 92) is an experimental pool-type reactor with a power rating of 38 Megawatts thermal (MWth) which functioned from 1978 to 2007. Phébus was designed for the study of serious accidents affecting light water reactors and for defining operating procedures to prevent core melt-down or to mitigate its consequences. Decree 2024-256 requiring CEA to proceed with the Phébus decommissioning operations was published in March 2024. CEA plans to start decommissioning operations after a surveillance phase. Following the publication of this Decree, the licensee has submitted the safety analysis report and the decommissioning General Operating Rules (RGEs) which were authorised by ASN in August 2024. The periodic safety review file submitted in 2017 is currently being assessed by ASNR. The facility has been emptied of all radioactive material since December 2021, in accordance with the priority objectives of the DECPROs. The start-up neutron source is stored in the reactor building pool pending the identification of a disposal route. In 2025, ASNR considered that the level of nuclear safety and radiation protection at the facility was satisfactory, particularly with regard to the “external hazards” issue raised during the inspection. Laboratory for research and experimental fabrication of advanced nuclear fuels CEA centre Commissioned in 1983, the Laboratory for research and experimental fabrication of advanced nuclear fuels (Lefca – BNI 123) was a laboratory tasked with conducting studies on plutonium, uranium, actinides and their compounds with the aim of understanding the behaviour of these materials in the reactor and in the various stages of the “fuel cycle”. In 2018, Lefca finalised the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur ABSTRACTS – ASNR Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2025 93
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