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Energy Procedía 39 (2013) 168 - 174
Asian Nuclear Prospects 2012 (ANUP2012)
Optimizing Radioactive Material Transport: Transport Risk
Management
Pascal Chollet, Véronique Baylac-Domengetroy
TNInternational - AREVA group, 1 rue des Hérons, F-78054 Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines cedex
1. Abstract
The safety of nuclear transport is essential to the AREVA Group as it is to the nuclear industry at large. Because transport or radioactive materials is performed in the public domain, it is sensitive to the public and its environment.
In order to optimize transport safety of the AREVA Group the Logistics Business Unit of AREVA has setup, since 2006, a specific organization with a dedicated team, specific IT tools and processes: the "Transport Risk Management".
"Transport Risk Management" covers all nuclear materials and contaminated equipment representing a specific risk to the group. Approximately 10 000 radioactive shipments per year are covered by this process.
This paper will introduce the approach the AREVA Group has taken to develop and implement "Transport Risk Management" with its Logistics BU. The approach is composed of three steps:
- Identification of transport flows and risk analysis,
- Mitigation proposals often involving the supply chain,
- Decisions on priorities for implementation, anticipation and preparation (such as for emergency response), and control.
The risk analysis and risk management is evaluated for each transportation flow: the occurrence or probability of an event during transport and the consequence of any potential event provides a Risk Level which is evaluated against the current Level of Management for the same transport flow. Control and continuous improvement are key to the process.
Decision making for implementing the proposed mitigation plans and scheduling is based on the above risk analysis and evaluation. Transport Risk Management" provides for improved safety, image as well as performance.
KEYWORDS: Transport, Safety, Risk, Supply Chain, Risk Analysis, Emergency Response, Public Acceptance.
1876-6102 © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University doi: 10.1016/j .egypro .2013.07.203
2. Preamble
In 2006, AREVA mandated its Logistics Business Unit to handle "Transport Risk Management." From this date, the Logistics Business Unit has executed or has, at least, ensured the proper management of shipments of radioactive material which involve particular risks.
This mission is fully complementary to the strict implementation of national and international regulations regarding the safety of radioactive material transport. Taking these regulations as a starting point, the AREVA Transport Risk Management Initiative develops their general principles of risk management to operations that are sensitive by nature.
By applying the Transport Risk Management Initiative to the shipment of radioactive materials, AREVA has widened the principle of precaution to beyond the field of safety and radioprotection: accomplishing safe transportation necessarily implies the identification and management of all risks inherent to the operations (safety, physical protection, media pressure, geopolitics, etc.).
The contents of this paper outline those guiding principles currently in use by AREVA today, the organisation and resources that have enabled the concretization of this ambition at the operational level: shipments executed each year by the AREVA Logistics Business Unit, as well as shipments subcontracted by the AREVA group to external shipping companies fall within the scope of this initiative, and one of the stakes is to manage suppliers, often in an international environment.
3. Introduction
In the field of radioactive material transport, AREVA is convinced that the cost of remaining passive shall, sooner or later, be much greater than the cost of implementing strict safety control processes. This paper will show that in addition to improving safety, Transport Risk Management also contributed to optimizing the overall transports of radioactive material.
Deployment of the Transport Risk Management Initiative hence illustrates a credo: beyond the strict implementation of applicable standards, safety inevitably relies on an operator's ability to remain proactive and constantly vigilant.
The essential condition for ensuring real transport risk management is the adoption of a global vision which allows flexibility to not stick solely to operations. Hence deployment of the Transport Risk Management Initiative concerns several fields:
- before transport - constant action to identify, evaluate and minimize risks
- during operational stages - real-time tracking and management of all stakeholders involved in the shipments
- emergency response capabilities and know-how if an incident or an accident should occur
Figure 1: AREVA Transport Risk Management methodology
4. Risk analysis and logistical expertise: the first step towards transport safety
As a first step, the methodology consists of identifying and analysing all transport flows that might put AREVA at risk. Thus, 1,500 transport flows corresponding to approximately 10,000 operations (amongst them 3,000 are tracked in real time) are addressed each year concerning 33 AREVA industrial sites worldwide.
For all transport flows executed by the Logistics Business Unit or covered by the Logistics Business Unit through the Transport Risk Management Initiative, all relevant data are collected in order to evaluate the risk level, operation by operation. When a flow or a specific transport subject requires a more detailed analysis, the Logistics Business Unit undertakes a thorough technical study. Such studies address specific requests from AREVA entities wanting to open new transport flows or needing to evaluate a transport mode (maritime for example). In some other cases, such studies concur with the existing risk analysis yet focus on a specific issue. They become a then guide for operators concerned with the implementation of measures that ensure the strict application of technical and regulatory transport specifications.
These studies cover a wide range of subjects and require several fields of expertise: transport organisation, regulatory watch, safety, security, loading and tie-down, even public relations. In 2012, the AREVA Logistics Business Unit carried out 20 of these studies. Two essential criteria determine the risk:
- the risk level of the transport itself, determined by comparing the gravity of a possible incident to the probability of its occurrence,
- the management level of the operator, which is based on the evaluation of the operator's organisation and processes and their contribution to ensure proper transport risk management,.
The below risk evaluation matrix shows the rating for transport flows, taking into account safety, security, industrial risk, and media risk aspects. This matrix also indicates which flows, operators or transport means to eliminate when the risk evaluation is negative. In the maritime domain for instance, nine vessels have been blacklisted since 2007.
Figure 2: Risk evaluation matrix: example of rating for transport flows
According to this risk evaluation process, and before implementation of improvement measures, 19% of the flows currently covered by the AREVA Transport Risk Management Initiative have been defined at a very low risk level, 75% at a reasonable or quite reasonable risk level, 6% at a high risk level (in this case, a higher management level is then required for authorisation of the shipment).
5. Supplier qualification: in-field inspections and audits to manage suppliers and ensure safe transportation
During transport itself, the Transport Risk Management Initiative is implemented through in- field deployment of an inspector's team qualified for intervening on all flows and for all associated suppliers at consignor and consignee sites, among others. Hence, all inspectors have perfect knowledge of national and international regulations regarding class-7 material transport as well as thorough technical knowledge (knowledge in mechanics for instance) that enable them to evaluate logistical operations.
Since its creation in 2007, the inspector's team has carried out more than 1,100 detailed control operations on all transport modes used by AREVA. Beyond the 250 inspections carried out yearly worldwide, about 40 audits of suppliers involved in the logistical chain are carried out annually. Between 2007 and 2011, the percentage of "non satisfactory" inspections dropped from nearly 20% to less than 5%. AREVA recognizes this decrease as proof that operators are more proactive in terms of safety because the AREVA requirements are now widespread and well-known.
AREVA currently uses more than 280 transport suppliers (rail, road, sea, air, others), hence supplier qualification is really a significant issue. Compiling information from audits and inspections has enabled the building of a panel of the 200 most experienced referenced suppliers.
Figure 3: Transport Risk Management inspectors during a supplier inspection at Fos-Marseille harbour on a shipment of uranium ore concentrates
6. Emergency preparedness and response: be ready to provide appropriate support for crisis mitigation
For AREVA, the Transport Risk Management Initiative also concerns crisis prevention and crisis management, in addition to normal activity situations. During an emergency situation, it would be inconsistent to not take advantage of and to not rely on specific resources which are usually in charge of dealing with sensitive technical information. From this perspective, to prevent potential emergency situations the teams in charge of the Transport Risk Management Initiative provide, if necessary, technical recommendations based on information gathered within the framework of risk analyses, inspections or audits. Transport operators and AREVA sites must address these recommendations by implementing improvement measures if they want to be qualified or remain qualified, or if they want to improve their management level. Nearly 230 recommendations have been issued since 2007.
In case of a transport emergency situation, the Transport Risk Management Division at Logistics Business Unit leads and coordinates the deployment of a Transport Emergency Response Plan (PUI-T, Plan d'Urgence et d'Intervention Transport). This plan gathers a Command and Decision team, a technical expertise team, a communications team, as well as a mobile team with specialists sent in the field and/or to the customer premises. If the event occurs in France, staff is also deployed to the concerned regional Prefecture.
Figure 4: Command and Decision Team gathered during a drill at the Logistics Business Unit Emergency Response Centre
Within the framework of the international deployment of the Transport Risk Management Initiative, this ability to be reactive is now reinforced by the Transport Safety Advisors and the Transport Advisors network, which are present in all AREVA industrial sites. Thus, readily available resources as well as reliable information about the transport are in the field without delay.
The emergency plan and resources are tested during internal emergency response drills, some of which simulate incidents occurring out of France. For example, in November 2010 an exercise simulating an incident that would have occurred in Germany (fictitious transport of contaminated equipment) was carried out. Coordination between German and French AREVA entities was evaluated during this drill. In 2011, another international exercise was carried out with Japanese counterparts. In France, other exercises involve all the concerned stakeholders: national safety authority (ASN), regional Prefectures, decentralized state services, hospitals, media, etc. Each of these occasions provides opportunities to test and evaluate AREVA's Transport Risk Management system.
7. Conclusion
The transport of radioactive material is vital to AREVA: it is not only the link between all of AREVA's facilities, but also between the group and its customers as well as its suppliers throughout the world.
As the transported materials are dangerous, the shipments themselves must be safe. The perpetuation of AREVA's industrial model, built around the nuclear fuel cycle, hence requires the perfect management of all radioactive material transport flows, whether they are arriving at or departing from an AREVA site. AREVA has made the commitment to reach the highest level of risk prevention at each step of the logistical chain. This commitment applies to all AREVA logistical activities, may they be performed by the group itself or subcontracted. The corollary of this has been the deployment of the Transport Risk Management system over the past 4 years which, while maximizing transport safety, has provided the AREVA Logistics Business Unit with a real competitive advantage: beyond being vital, safety also pays off.
