The ASN's actions are part of a process of continuous progress. ASN bears responsibility for major issues facing the population and the environment. At a national level, it is responsible for protecting and informing the citizens. At an international level, it has to act as one of the world's leading safety authorities, sharing its experience with its peers and ensuring that the principles of nuclear safety and radiation protection are adopted worldwide..

In 2007, ASN will continue the constant improvement of its organisation and the way it works, within the context of its new status and in particular backed by the conclusions of the IRRS international audit mission and the directives of its new strategic plan. This improvement will be driven by its ambition to guarantee efficient, impartial, legitimate and credible regulation, recognised by the citizens and regarded internationally as a benchmark for good practice.

The regulation of nuclear safety and radiation protection concerns all State structures:

• Parliament, in particular the OPECST, for definition of the main long-term options;
• the Government, in particular the Ministers responsible for nuclear safety and radiation protection, who are given general regulatory powers and deal with individual questions concerning the creation of a BNI;
• ASN, which contributes to establishing the technical regulations and regulating activities;
• the consultative bodies, which provide an outside view of the important decisions concerning nuclear safety and radiation protection;
• the préfets, who are in charge of protecting the population.

The 13 June 2006 Act on transparency and security in the nuclear field changed the status of ASN. This change is a major one in that it extensively modifies the foundations of ASN legitimacy and its relations with the stakeholders. This does not however constitute a change in direction, but follows on from the work done in recent years by ASN to organise coherent and integrated regulation of the various areas of nuclear safety and radiation protection.

The range of installations and activities regulated by ASN is without doubt one of the largest and most diverse handled by any nuclear safety authority. It in particular covers a standardised population of nuclear power plants producing most of the electricity consumed in France, all the fuel cycle installations, research installations and plants that are virtually unique anywhere in the world, along with all installations and activities using ionising radiation in the medical, industrial and research sector.