The Ardennes nuclear power plant, which was coupled to the grid on 4 April 1967, finally ceased all electricity production on 30 October 1991. This reactor was the first PWR built in France. As part of the reactor partial decommissioning process, the 19 March 1999 decree authorised modification of the existing installation so that it could be converted into an interim storage facility for its own equipment left on the site, thereby creating a new basic nuclear installation called CNA-D. Owing to the change in the decommissioning strategy for this reactor, EDF submitted an application on 30 November 2004 for final shutdown and complete decommissioning of the CNA-D installation.

In 2005, EDF completed decommissioning in the main galleries and the electrical vault which in particular consisted in significantly reducing the fire load by removing decommissioned cabling. The licensee also started decommissioning work on the ventilation flue and the preparatory work for civil engineering demolition.

The Superphénix fast neutron reactor, a sodium-cooled industrial prototype, is located at Creys-Malville. In accordance with the Government decision of February 1998, this reactor, with its rated thermal power of 3000 MW and net electrical output of 1200 MWe, is currently in its final shutdown stage. This installation is associated with another BNI, the on-site spent fuel storage unit (APEC), consisting mainly of an interim storage pool for fuel removed from the reactor vessel.

Final shutdown of the reactor was authorised by decree 98-1305 of 30 December 1998.

In early 2003, all the fuel assemblies had been removed from the reactor and stored in the APEC. At present, the reactor vessel only contains special assemblies and the lateral neutron protections which present no criticality risk. The final decommissioning operations continued and the turbine hall is now almost completely empty. To allow treatment of the sodium contained in the reactor's systems, interim storage of the existing new core in the APEC and decommissioning of the reactor installations, EDF in 2003 submitted an application for authorisation for complete decommissioning of the reactor. It also submitted an application for a water intake and effluent discharge licence for the site. In 2004, these various applications were the subject of an administrative procedure, a technical investigation and a public inquiry. They should end in the publication of a decommissioning decree covering the entire period necessary for reactor decommissioning, while specifying hold points for the technical subjects felt to be the most sensitive, and a water intake and discharge license. The draft decree was approved by the CIINB on 11 May 2005.

Spent fuel removal facility (APEC)

This facility was commissioned on 25 July 2000 by the Ministers for Industry and the Environment. Spent fuel removed from the Superphénix reactor and washed is placed in the APEC pool.

In 2003, EDF submitted an application for modification of the installation's authorisation decree for storage of unused Superphénix fuel and for storage within the boundary of this BNI of the blocks of sodium-impregnated concrete resulting from the destruction of the sodium in this same reactor. This application should lead to publication of a decree modifying the installation's authorisation decree. The draft decree was approved by the CIINB on 11 May 2005.