Report of the Operational Safety Review Team (OSART) mission to Bugey nuclear power plant, France, 2 - 19 October 2017

This report describes the results of the OSART mission conducted for Bugey Nuclear Power Plant in France from 2 till 19 October 2017. The purpose of an OSART mission is to review the operational safety performance of a nuclear power plant against the IAEA safety standards, make recommendations and suggestions for further improvement and identify good practices that can be shared with NPPs around the world. This OSART mission reviewed twelve areas: Leadership and Management for Safety; Training and Qualification; Operations; Maintenance; Technical Support; Operating Experience Feedback; Radiation Protection; Chemistry; Emergency Preparedness and Response; Accident Management; Human, Technology and Organization Interactions; and Long Term Operation. The team noted the implementation of a new Integrated Management System at the end of 2016 for the plant and confirmed that further actions are needed to demonstrate sustainable safety improvement results. The collective nuclear power experience of the team was approximately 360 years. The team identified 16 issues leading to 6 recommendations and 10 suggestions that, if addressed, will assist the plant in their drive for continuous improvement in safety. The examples of outstanding practices and performance identified by the team during the mission will be disseminated to the rest of nuclear community via the IAEA OSMIR data base. Several areas of good performance were noted: - The use of 3D digital technologies in an innovative way to enhance the training and performance of plant personnel; - The environmentally-friendly way of treating plant cooling water to remove scale and sludge; - The use of a computer system equipped with personnel badge recognition for easy control of access to the radioactive sources present on the site. The most significant issues identified were: - The plant should improve the rigor and supervision of its conduct of operations; - The plant should consistently ensure proper preparation and high quality of its maintenance work; - The plant should ensure adequate training is implemented for all the personnel responsible for the implementation of the severe accident management guidelines at the plant. Bugey NPP management expressed their commitment to address the issues identified and invited a follow up visit in about eighteen months to review the progress