ASN Report 2017

165 ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2017 Chapter 05  - Radiological emergency and post-accident situations its Prefect support and communication duties, if necessary calling on the expertise of the national departments. In order to enhance the graduated nature of the ASN response and organisation in the event of an emergency, for situations not warranting activation of the emergency centre, the system has been adapted for the creation of a national level support unit to assist the regional division concerned. The format and duties of this unit are tailored to each situation. Once the public authorities have been alerted, the response generally consists of four main phases: care for the individuals involved, confirmation of the radiological nature of the incident, securing the zone and reducing the emission and, finally, clean-up. The Prefect or the mayor coordinates the intervention response teams, and decides on the protective measures to be taken, on the basis of the plans they have drawn up (ORSEC for the Prefects, Local Safeguard Plans for the mayors). At the local level, the Prefects and the mayors can also call on the Mobile Radiological Intervention Units (CMIR) of the fire and emergency services. In these situations, responsibility for the decision and for implementing protective measures lies with: ཛྷ ཛྷ the head of the establishment carrying out a nuclear activity (hospital, research laboratory, etc.) who implements the On-site Emergency Plan specified in Article L. 1333-6 of the Public Health Code (if the risks inherent to the installation so justify) or the owner of the site with regard to the safety of the persons on the site; ཛྷ ཛྷ the mayor or Prefect concerning public safety in the domain accessible to the public (in particular in the case of a radioactive substances transport incident). 2.2 ASN international duties Considering the potential repercussions that an accident may have in other countries, it is important that the information and intervention of the various countries concerned be as well- coordinated as possible. To this end, IAEA and the European Commission offer the Member States tools for notification and assistance in the event of a radiological emergency. ASN made an active contribution to the production of these tools, more specifically the new IAEA tool called USIE (Unified System for Information Exchange in Incidents and Emergencies), which is among to the tools used in ASN’s emergency centre on the occasion of each exercise. Independently of any bilateral agreements on the exchange of information in the event of an incident or accident with possible radiological consequences, France is committed to applying the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident adopted on 26th September 1986 by IAEA and the Euratom Decision of 14th December 1987 concerning Community procedures for an early exchange of information in the event of a radiological emergency situation. Two Interministerial Directives of 30th May 2005 and 30th November 2005 specify the procedures for application of these texts in France and instate ASN as the Competent National Authority. It is therefore up to ASN to notify the events without delay to the international institutions, to rapidly provide the pertinent information about the situation, in particular to border countries, to enable them to take the necessary population protection measures and, finally, to provide the ministers concerned with a copy of the notifications and the information transmitted or received. In 2017, ASN took part in several international exercises: ཛྷ ཛྷ the ConvEx 3 exercise organised by IAEA and concerning an accident at an NPP in Hungary; ཛྷ ཛྷ the major Swiss RAROS exercise to test information exchange and coordination of population protection measures; ཛྷ ཛྷ the national Trillo exercise organised by Spain; ཛྷ ཛྷ a table-top exercise with Germany on the coordination of population protection measures. Finally, as part of the national exercise on the Cattenom NPP in October, the ASN emergency centre organised a coordination training session with the representatives of the German nuclear safety regulator and ministerial level representatives from Luxembourg. FOCUS Observation of a “demonstration exercise” in the United Kingdom The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), ASN’s counterpart in the United Kingdom, has for several years been carrying out in-situ inspections related to the ability of the licensees to implement the provisions of their PUI. Thanks to the commitment of one of its staff members, seconded to the ONR, ASN was invited to observe one such exercise at the Hinkley Point NPP, in June 2017. This type of “demonstration exercise” is comparable to an inspection during the course of an exercise. It mobilises between 4 and 10 ONR inspectors and is carried out every year on each nuclear site. The British inspectors record the best practices observed and the areas for improvement identified during the course of the exercise, without making any comments. They then send their remarks to the licensee during an analysis session held at the end of the demonstration. If too many anomalies are observed, the ONR may suspend the operation of the facility. This type of exercise usually leads to improvements in the licensee’s arrangements or their implementation. In 2018, ASN will initiate PUI implementation inspections along the same lines. Simulation during the exercise with fire hoses.