Reactor, Environment & Safety

Following the nuclear accident at Fukushima, on 11th March 2011, the French nuclear safety authority (the ASN) decided to launch additional safety assessments on all French nuclear bases (INBs).

The studies performed at the ILL analysed the behaviour of the ILL reactor under extreme conditions: the earthquake scenarios envisaged would have caused major damage to a town like Grenoble and would have led to the failure of all the dams on the river Drac, leaving the town under 10 metres of water.

On 15 September 2011 ILL submitted the results of its analyses to the IRSN and the ASN.(See a short summary here).

On 16th November 2011 the permanent group of experts for nuclear reactors has replied with its conclusions: the ILL's proposals have been accepted as satisfactory.

On 3 January, the French nuclear safety authority, the ASN (Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire), presented its safety review of French nuclear facilities to the French Prime Minister. The ASN has taken note of our commitments to implement improvements in line with the post-Fukushima Complementary Safety Assessments and of our proposed work schedule.