In the event of an accident, a crisis plan is in place to limit impacts on the environment and people, and to ensure the safety of the facility. This crisis system is based on two closely coordinated plans, designed for both local and national use. These are:
In order to provide greater effectiveness, these plans in particular take into account external risks (flooding…) and internal risks (fire…). The relevance of the system for warning, informing and protecting people is regularly assessed through accident simulation exercises. Each year, approximately 100 exercises are organised for the entire French nuclear fleet, i.e., approximately one drill every three days. Approximately ten exercises are on a national level, under the management of the ASN and involve EDF and the public authorities, in particular the prefectures. In 2020,10 nationwide drills were organised including 2 to support CGN operators (China) and ESKOM (South Africa).
After its initial analyses following the Fukushima accident in March 2011, EDF supplemented its crisis management organisation with a national team capable of quickly delivering material and human assistance to a site in great difficulty. This system, called the Nuclear Rapid Action Force (FARN), has had many simulation exercises from regional bases located at Civaux, Paluel, Dampierre and Bugey and can be sent to a unit at any site in difficulty. The FARN is capable of a simultaneous response at six units on a single site.
The operational safety of nuclear facilities is taken into consideration from the initial design stage, and is regularly monitored, together with the implementation of an employee motivation policy and large-scale investment programmes. The Group’s nuclear safety policy is incorporated into training for both EDF employees and subcontractors.
In France, the safety of nuclear facilities is controlled by the ASN. Events are classified on a scale from one to seven, with seven being the most serious, called the INES scale(1). Incidents of no consequence for nuclear safety are called “level 0 events”. Since the establishment of a scale of this kind in France in 1987, no level 3 event (serious incident – very low external emission, and exposure of the public representing a fraction of regulatory limits) or above has occurred in the French nuclear fleet.
As in 2019, no major safety or radiation protection events were recorded in France in 2020. EDF’s Nuclear Generation Division in France declared 736 significant safety events (SSEs) in France, an improvement on the 762 SSEs declared in 2019. Only one level 2 SSE (compared to 3 in 2019) and 83 level 1 SSEs (compared to 86 in 2019) were declared.
The number of automatic reactor trips (ARTs) improved significantly, with 0.24 ARTs per reactor over a 12-month sliding period (0.53 in 2019; 0.31 in 2018; 0.38 in 2017).
The 2020 detailed results on nuclear safety are published in the annual report created by the General Inspector for Nuclear Safety and are available on the Internet.
The mobilisation of ground players has allowed a continuous improvement of performance on the protection of employees against the effects of ionising radiation. Thus, the average annual collective dose of all workers, both employees of EDF and outside companies intervening in power plants, has been halved in less than ten years.
In 2020, the average collective dose was 0.61 man-sievert per reactor. The average individual dose (EDF and contractors) remained below 1mSv (0.91mSv). The hourly dose remained stable throughout the year and was the second-lowest achieved for the fleet, with 5.45μSv per hour worked in controlled areas.
EDF is proactively implementing an ALARA (As Low as Reasonably Achievable) policy to limit the collective dose in parallel with an increasing workload involved in the industrial project on the fleet in operation. EDF is furthermore committed to continuing to lower exposure to radiation below the regulatory limit of 20mSv over 12 rolling months for the whole body. Accordingly, throughout 2020 and over 12 rolling months, no participant (among the EDF employees and contractors) was exposed to an individual dose of higher than 14mSv.
In the coming years, given the levels already achieved, efforts will have to be focused on power plants with the poorest dosimetric results, in particular by cleaning their circuits.
Regulatory notice
In France, nuclear activities that present a risk of exposing persons to ionising radiation are regulated by two separate sets of rules, depending on the category of persons to be protected.
Regulations on the basic protection of the population against such radiation, which are governed by the French Public Health Code, are primarily based on all nuclear activities being subject to a declaration, registration or authorisation. Authorisations granted to establish a Basic Nuclear Facility serve as the authorisation required under the French Public Health Code.Article R. 1333-11 of the French Public Health Code sets the maximum exposure level of the general public at 1mSv per year.
French regulations on the protection of workers against the dangers of ionising radiation, which are governed by the French Labour Code, lay down various obligations for employers of workers who are likely to be exposed.
The nuclear fuel cycle encompasses all industrial operations in France and abroad which enable the supply of the fuel to generate energy in a reactor, then to unload and process it.
The cycle can be broken down into three stages:
EDF coordinates all the operations in the fuel cycle. Generally speaking, upstream and downstream operations are carried out by subcontractors or suppliers, generally on the basis of multi-year contracts. EDF acquires most of the raw materials as uranium concentrates (U3 O8), with transformation into more processed products carried out by industrial operators through service contracts (fluorination, enrichment and production). As the owner in most cases, EDF provides core cycle operations and is responsible for the fuel and materials it uses throughout all different stages of the cycle.
(1) International Nuclear Event Scale.
