The safety reassessment of research reactors in France

In France, all the research reactors are subject by law to periodic safety reassessment which is necessary to maintain them in operation. These safety reassessments follow strict guidelines in terms of methodology, requirements and rules, similar to the ones used for Nuclear Power Plants. Compulsory, they are done every ten years.This process, which is in fact based on two separate steps (conformity exam and safety reassessment), takes into account feedback experiment, obtained during the operation of the reactor and on other similar nuclear facilities. It allows us to identify the gap between the present situation and the requirements due to the current rules and to check the possibility of implementation. At the end of these safety reassessments, refurbishment work is defined (seismic reinforcement, fire protection, command/control upgrade ) according to the life expectancy forecast for the facility. In this way, the safety level of the research reactor increases.The French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) operates ten research reactors covering the whole scope of use (neutrons beams reactor for ORPHEE, Zero Power Reactor for neutron physic studies for EOLE, MINERVE and MASURCA, safety test dedicated reactors such as CABRI and PHEBUS).All these reactors are subject to the safety reassessment described above. After a brief review of these reactors, the paper focuses on the safety reassessment of MASURCA and gives an overview of the refurbished reactors ready to operate for the next decades