Orano - Annual Activity Report 2024 89 RISKS, CONTROL AND DUTY OF VIGILANCE PLAN 3 Duty of vigilance plan Crisis management system Orano has a robust crisis management system to manage emergency situations relating to the safety of the facilities, as well as their security, the health of employees and neighboring populations and the environment. Around 100 crisis management drills are conducted each year, in France and abroad, placing group employees and external contractors under the responsibility of Orano in diverse scenarios representing identified risks (industrial accident, nuclear safety accident, natural conditions, transport accidents, deterioration of the safety/health situation). To do this, Orano relies in particular on: ● the skills of trained operational teams, as well as the teams responsible for managing the projects; ● experts or specialists in various fields; ● HSE Departments present as close as possible to operations; ● an emergency preparedness organization; ● coordination of the business line networks, enabling in particular the sharing of information on achievements, best practices and events in order to prevent risks and promote improvement actions; and ● the General Inspectorate responsible for verifying compliance with the safety standards for nuclear operations. The primary objective of these exercises is to train crisis management teams and, more broadly, to raise employee and external contractors (working on the sites) awareness on how to behave in the event of a crisis. They also enable the local, regional and national crisis organizations to test the relevance of the procedures they have established to control the situation and limit the impacts on individuals and the environment. Continuous prevention of risks that could lead to an industrial or chemical accident at a group site The operations of Orano, as part of its activities, may generate conventional accidents or lead to the uncontrolled release of chemical substances with potential consequences on the environment around the group’s facilities. The prevention of industrial and chemical accidents is a priority for Orano due to the potentially significant impact on local ecosystems. Post-Lubrizol action plans Orano took part in the various work organized by France Chimie following the Lubrizol accident of September 26, 2019, and implemented action plans to improve the prevention of industrial risks based on four components: skills development, improvement of employees’ industrial safety culture, risk prevention (strengthening of the monitoring of inventories of hazardous substances, etc.), and the implementation of standards and indicators across the group. Industrial Safety Management System On the French sites classified as high-threshold Seveso, hazard studies are conducted and a prevention policy for major risks is implemented to ensure the protection of the environment and the public. Following several significant events relating to industrial safety (fire, uncontrolled gas emissions), though without significant impacts on employees, neighboring residents, or mining operations, an ambitious action plan was launched in 2020 to equip mining sites with a system equivalent to the existing industrial safety management system applied for French highthreshold Seveso facilities. In 2024, significant progress was made to reduce the risk of major accidents. For example, a strengthened risk control measures (MMR) management protocol was implemented at McClean Lake in Canada. These procedures make it possible to help prioritize equipment repairs. For more information on nuclear and industrial safety, see Section 4.3.3.2 of this report. Prevention of risks associated with an incident during the transport of nuclear or chemical products The group is exposed to the risk of accidents during the transport of radioactive material or dangerous chemical substances by rail, sea or road. Compliance with the regulations in force is ensured by all group companies and in particular Orano NPS (Nuclear Packaging and Services), which operates a “transport supervision” process. This supervision aims in particular to ensure the control of operational, safety, physical and industrial protection risks involving Orano and is based on: ● a real-time monitoring center for the most sensitive transports, providing permanent access to transport information, in liaison with the French State; and ● a crisis management unit that can be mobilized in the event of an incident, trained regularly during drills. In order to ensure the safety and protection of populations, property and the environment, the transportation of radioactive and nuclear materials is also subject to the principle of “defense in depth”, which consists of setting up successive lines of defense (packaging performance, compliance with safety requirements, compliance with security requirements, crisis management organization) to prevent accidents and limit their effects. Where possible, Orano also prioritizes rail transport. The group carries out its transport operations in accordance with the international and national regulations in force. These regulations are established according to the nature of the material transported and the mode of transport used. In terms of the transport of radioactive materials, nuclear safety is first and foremost based on packaging. The packaging is designed to protect people and the environment, both under normal conditions and in transport accident situations, regardless of the mode of transport used: ● packaging protects the public and operators against radiation due to proven materials and technologies. Each type of packaging is adapted to the material being transported;
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