France’s Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) reported on 24 March that there were 227 significant events in 2014 at basic nuclear installations other than NPPs, 17 more than in 2013. IRSN said its analysis of significant events for 2013 and 2014 did not find any particularly noteworthy changes and none of the events had any significant consequences for workers or the environment, nor did they lead to any major failure of the risk control measures applied at these installations. IRSN said there was "a substantial reduction" in 2014 in the number of events related to handling operations, mainly as a result of licensees’ efforts to improve the reliability of the human and organisational measures applicable during such operations.
Some 70% of the events were related to safety, most involving the risk of dispersing radioactive substances, and less than 15% were related to radiation protection, mainly involving inadequate planning for cleanup or dismantling work or a failure to observe radiological zoning at facilities. The other events were related to the environment, with half of these having no radiological consequences. "This breakdown is similar to that of previous years," IRSN said. The report, produced every two year since 2009, relates to 73 facilities including plants, laboratories, facilities for the treatment, disposal and storage of waste, facilities which have been decommissioned, and nine research reactors operated by around 20 different licensees in France.
