Nuclear Monitor #930
Jan van Evert, reporter WISE-Netherlands
The French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASNR) has severely criticized crisis management at the Flamanville 3 nuclear power plant which has been shut down since June 19th due to several technical problems (see Nuclear Monitor 924 and 926). On August 20th, inspectors subjected EDF teams to an unannounced “local crisis response” (MLC) exercise which involved the replacement of one electrical panel component with another to recharge batteries in the event of a total power loss. The result was that the operator was unable to complete this operation, which was essential to prevent an accident.
In its follow-up letter, the ASNR points to an “insufficiently precise range of operations”, staff “forced to question themselves on numerous occasions”, and a training program deemed “perfectible”. Worse still, some of the crisis equipment requested by the inspectors could not be presented. “The organization of the Flamanville EPR with regard to crisis management and resources appears insufficient”, concludes the nuclear watchdog, a rare assessment in its usually measured vocabulary.
“I don’t recall such an observation,” Guy Vastel, of the Association pour le contrôle de la radioactivité dans l’Ouest (Acro), told Ouest-France. Yannick Rousselet, from Greenpeace, believes that “nothing is right” in this report. EDF, has announced an ‘action plan’ and asserts that the findings “do not call into question the availability of crisis resources or the site’s capacity to manage an emergency
Source: reporterre.net
