Inspection of transport activity within AREVA

For AREVA, a world leader in the nuclear industry, operation performance is necessarily tied to the absolute compliance with requirements for safety in all of its operations. These operations are – inter alia – those performed either in facilities for which AREVA is the prime nuclear operator, or services it provides to its customers. Of course, they also encompass transport of dangerous goods, including radioactive material. In order to achieve the highest level of safety, the organisation includes an Inspector General and his Office, the Inspector General Office, comprising a corps of inspectors, who are specifically assigned to inspections related to nuclear and industrial safety. These inspections are organized on a multiannual programme including many themes, e.g. radiation protection, criticality, fire hazard, waste management, emergency preparedness and response, or subcontractors control. From 2012, it was decided to include again the transport of radioactive material in the inspection programme, after a few years when this subject was left aside. More precisely, in 2012, the inspections on transport focused on the ability of the consignor to demonstrate full compliance of the packages which are shipped with the applicable requirements. The General Inspectorate is the third level of control, beyond the technical control, carried out by the operating staff as close as possible to where the activities are located (“Level 0 control”), and the internal quality and safety control such as independent assessment carried out by internal auditors of the entity or of the site (“Level 1 control”). Whilst some inspections are focused on the actual conformity of the activity, most of them are directed towards the analysis of the processes which are implemented, including those to assure the conformity of activities to their requirements. The General Inspectorate operates under a strict and well defined process which is presented in detail in the paper. More than 20 in-depth inspections were carried out by the Inspector General Office, and also by the Transport Risk Management Division of AREVA TN. The paper presents the main results of these inspections, the lessons learned and the follow-up plan. It highlights also that the general lessons drawn from the inspections of facilities are also applicable to the transport of radioactive material.