ASN Report 2017

187 ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2017 Chapter 07  - International relations safety regulators and some of their counterparts from outside the European Union, to discuss nuclear safety progress and challenges. Radioactive waste management, the process for licensing new facilities, reactor operations beyond forty years and oversight of the supply chain were all covered during the course of four thematic sessions. 2.3 The European Directive on the Safety of nuclear installations The Council 2009/71/Euratom Directive of 25th June 2009 aims to establish a Community framework to ensure nuclear safety within the European Atomic Energy Community and to encourage the Member States to guarantee a high level of nuclear safety (see chapter 3). Directive 2014 modifies Directive 2009 and more specifically requires additional measures concerning peer reviews, safety reassessments every ten years, greater transparency and safety objectives incorporating the notion of defence in depth. It makes provision for increased powers and independence of the national safety regulators, sets an ambitious safety objective for the entire Union (based on the baseline safety requirements used by WENRA) and establishes a European system of peer reviews on safety topics (fire risk and flooding for example). It also establishes national periodic safety assessments and provisions concerning preparedness for interventions in an emergency situation. It also reinforces the transparency requirements and provisions concerning education and training. During the negotiations, ASN endeavoured to promote France’s position in favour of these measures, which significantly strengthen the Community’s nuclear facilities safety oversight framework. However, European legislation does not yet enshrine in law the institutional independence of the safety regulators. This Directive was extensively transposed into the Energy Transition for Green Growth Act 2015-992 of 17th August 2015 (TECV Act) and Ordinance 2016-128 of 10th February 2016 containing various nuclear-related provisions. With the help of ASN, France also notified complete transposition of the 2014 Directive in August  2017, in accordance with the deadlines set by the Commission. Consistently with this transposition, ASN supports actions aiming to define the technical safety objectives being sought. 2.4 The European Directive on the Management of spent fuel and radioactive waste On 19th July 2011, the Council of the European Union adopted a directive establishing a community framework for the responsible and safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste (Directive 2011/70/Euratom). The adoption of this Directive is a major event and one that helps strengthen nuclear safety within the European Union, by making the Member States more accountable for the management of their spent fuel and radioactive wastes. This Directive is legally binding and covers all aspects of the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste, from production up to long-term disposal. It recalls the prime responsibility of the producers and the ultimate responsibility of each Member State for ensuring the management of the waste produced on its territory, ensuring that the necessary steps are taken to guarantee a high level of safety and to protect the workers and the public from the dangers of ionising radiation. It clearly defines obligations concerning the safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste and requires that each Member State adopt a legal framework covering safety issues, stipulating: ཛྷ ཛྷ the creation of a competent regulatory authority with a status such as to guarantee its independence from the producers of waste; ཛྷ ཛྷ the definition of authorisation procedures involving authorisation requests examined on the basis of the safety cases from the licensees. The Directive regulates the drafting of the national spent fuel and radioactive waste management policies to be implemented by each Member State. It in particular specifies that each Member State has to adopt a legislative and regulatory FUNDAMENTALS Irregularities and falsifications: adapting ASN oversight to a context of fraud Changing ASN’s approach taking account of lessons learned around the world and sharing the conclusions of its work Following the discovery of irregularities in the manufacturing files for components manufactured by the Creusot Forge plant, ASN set up an in-house working group at the beginning of 2017 to adapt its oversight processes. This work drew on the existing IAEA guides and the work of the NEA (CNRA/WGOE) and questioned its counterparts by means of the various multilateral forums. As of mid-2017, ASN presented the initial results of this work and chaired a session devoted to oversight of the supply chain, at the 4th ENSREG conference (28th and 29th June in Brussels). Studies in France about prevention and detection measures relating to safety culture, data integrity, or the use of information obtained from whistle-blowers, served as input for the initial ENSREG work programme, which will be continuing. In the autumn of 2017, ASN presented the conclusions of its work to WENRA and to the MDEP. The latter decided to take the work done by ASN further in order to share the best practices.