ASN Report 2017

163 ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2017 Chapter 05  - Radiological emergency and post-accident situations Circulation of information ASN is involved in informing: ཛྷ ཛྷ the media and the public: publication of press releases and organisation of press conferences; it is important that this action be carried out in close coordination with the other entities required to communicate (Prefects, licensees at both local and national levels, etc.); ཛྷ ཛྷ institutional and associative stakeholders: local authorities, ministries, offices of the Prefect, political authorities, general directorates of administrations, Anccli, Local Information Committees, etc.; ཛྷ ཛྷ foreign nuclear safety Regulators. Function of Competent Authority as defined by International Conventions The Environment Code provides for ASN to fulfil the role of Competent Authority under the International Conventions on Early Notification and Assistance. As such it collates and summarises information for the purpose of sending or receiving notifications and for transmitting the information required by these Conventions to the international organisations (IAEA and European Union) and to the countries possibly affected by radiological consequences on their own territory, jointly with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. 2.1.2 Organisation of ASN Organising the response to accidents occurring in BNIs The ASN emergency response organisation set up to deal with a nuclear accident in a BNI more specifically comprises: ཛྷ ཛྷ the participation of ASN staff in the various units of the CIC; ཛྷ ཛྷ at the national level, an emergency centre in Montrouge, consisting of three Command Posts (PC): -- a “Strategy” Command Post, consisting of the ASN Commission, which, in an emergency situation could be called on to issue resolutions and impose prescriptions on the licensee of the installation concerned; -- a Technical Command Post (PCT) in constant contact with its technical support organisation, IRSN, and with the ASN Commission. Its role is to adopt a stance for advising the Prefect, who acts as the director of contingency operations; -- a Communication Command Post (PCC), located close to the Technical Command Post. The ASNChairman or his/her representative acts as spokesperson, a role which is distinct from that of the head of the Technical Command Post. This emergency centre is regularly tested during national emergency exercises and is activated for actual incidents or accidents. At the local level, ASN representatives visit the département and zone Prefects to help them with their decisions and their communication actions. ASN inspectors may also go to the site affected; others take part in emergency management at the headquarters of the regional division involved. Experience feedback from the Fukushima Daiichi accident also leads ASN to envisage sending one of its representatives, if necessary, to the French embassy of a country in which an accident occurred. In 2017, the national emergency centre was activated on 14 occasions, for four actual situations and ten national exercises, two of which concerned defence BNIs or national defence sites regulated by the Defence Nuclear Safety Authority (ASND). The actual situations concern two intrusions by Greenpeace on the Cattenom and Cruas-Meysse NPPs and two PUI activations on the Bugey NPP. The first concerned a fire on FOCUS Exercises in 2017: new challenges In 2017, the programme of exercises comprised two unusual exercises for which the ASN emergency centre was activated: an NRBC exercise (malicious nuclear, radiological, bacteriological or chemical act) and a “zone” exercise. The first was an opportunity for ASN to test its ability to respond to a complex subject unrelated to the safety of an installation and involving the use of rarely employed response frameworks. The second, coordinated by the South-East Defence Prefect’s office, was an opportunity for the départements of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, in particular those not containing a BNI, to practice implementing post-accident measures such as restrictions on the consumption and sale of local produce. TABLE 1: Positions of the various players in a radiological emergency situation DECISION EXPERT APPRAISAL INTERVENTION COMMUNICATION Authorities Government (CIC) Prefect (COD, COZ) / Prefect (PCO) Civil protection Government (CIC) COD Prefect ASN (PCT) IRSN (CTC) Météo-France IRSN (mobile units) ASN IRSN Licensees National and local level National and local level Local level National and local level CIC: French Inter-ministerial Crisis Committee - COD: Departmental Operations Centre COZ: Zone Operations Centre - CTC: Technical Emergency Centre PCO: Operational Command Post - PCT: Technical Command Post