International Conference on the Safe and Secure Transport of Nuclear and Radioactive Material

Multilateral approval of a SCO-III (three spent steam generator lower parts from EDF Fessenheim nuclear power plant) multimodal shipment - A French, Belgian, Dutch and German collaboration

Not scheduled

20m

Vienna

ORAL Track 1 Legislative and Regulatory Framework for Safe and Secure Transport

Speakers

Dominik KAUFHOLD (BASE) Frederik KESTING (BASE) Jeroen VAN DER TUIJN (ANVS) Lars MULLER (BAM) Matthieu GUITTON (Autorité de sûreté nucléaire et de radioprotection) Vincent LEBLANC (FANC)

Description

A Surface Contaminated Object (SCO) is defined as a solid object which is not itself radioactive, but which has radioactive material distributed on its surfaces. The 2018 Edition of the IAEA Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material (SSR-6 Rev. 1) introduced the group SCO-III to transport unpackaged large objects.

The two pressurized water reactors of the Fessenheim Nuclear Power Plant, owned by EDF, were shut down in 2020. Previously, for maintenance operations in the year 2002 and 2010, the three steam generators – over 20 metres long, 300 tons – of each reactor were taken out from the reactors, divided in two and stored on site:

• EDF shipped the six upper parts, as SCO-I, to Cyclife, in Studsvik
  (Sweden), in 2021, to be recycled;
• EDF plans two transports of the lower parts (three parts for each
  transport), as SCO-III (considering the higher activity due to the
  NPP primary coolant) to the same facility. Modes of transport are,
  from consignor to consignee, road, inland waterways and maritime. The
  countries crossed by inland waterways, from Neuf-Brisach to Dunkerque
  (France), are France, Germany,Belgium and the Netherlands.

According to the para. 825 of SSR-6 Rev. 1, “multilateral approval shall be required for the shipment of SCO-III”. EDF has submitted to all Competent Authorities an application (para. 827A of SSR-6 Rev. 1),
including a transport plan and demonstrations to withstand normal conditions of transport.

Despite SSR-6 Rev. 1, national regulations have their own specificities and each Competent Authority has its own assessment procedures. Nevertheless, involved Authorities agreed for a joint review, which
included:

• the understanding of national regulatory requirements,
• the expected level of detail and quality of the safety case,
• the feedback from previous shipments of similar type,
• the contents, including the conditions, of the approvals to be issued.

This joint review demonstrated good coordination between authorities, enabling the application to be processed rapidly, and the various authorities to benefit from each other's expertise and feedback. This
was of particular importance, as it was the first application for the transport of an SCO-III assessed by the Competent Authorities involved.

Finally, the authorities were able to issue approvals, whose format is certainly in line with their national provisions, but whose content and level of requirements in terms of transport safety are consistent.