ASN Report 2017

192 ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2017 Chapter 07  - International relations essential for safe, environmentally-friendly and economic utilisation of nuclear energy. Within the NEA, ASN mainly takes part in the work of the Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA), but also the Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health (CRPPH), the Radioactive Waste Management Committee (RWMC), and several working groups of the Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI). Also noteworthy is the upcoming creation of a standing technical committee on the decommissioning of nuclear facilities and management of legacy matters, within which ASN will play a role. The CNRA supervises the work done by four working groups covering a variety of fields to which ASN makes an active contribution: Working Group on Operating Experience (WGOE), Working Group on Inspection Practices (WGIP), Working Group on Public Communication (WGPC) and Working Group on the Regulation of New Reactors (WGRNR). Also of note is the creation at the end of 2017 of two new working groups (now making a total of six); the Working Group on Safety Culture (WGSC) and the Working Group on Digital Instrumentation and Control (WGDIC), this latter being the result of the transfer of the MDEP/DICWG to the NEA (see point 3.3). In 2017, ASN devoted particular efforts to informing the members of the CNRA, and indeed all international bodies, of the carbon segregation problem and the suspicion of falsification at Areva’s Creusot Forge plant. More information about NEA/CNRA activities can be found at the following address: www.oecd-nea.org/nsd/cnra/ 3.3 The Multinational Reactor Design Evaluation Program (MDEP) The MDEP, created in 2006, is an international cooperative initiative to develop innovative approaches for pooling the resources and know-how of the regulatory bodies which have responsibility for regulatory assessment of new reactors. The key goal of this programme is to contribute to the harmonisation and implementation of safety standards. At the request of the regulatory bodies which are members of the MDEP, the NEA is responsible for the technical secretariat of this programme. An ASN staff member is seconded to NEA to help with this task. Members of the programme With the inclusion of Argentina in 2017, the MDEP now comprises 16 national safety regulators: AERB (India), ARN (Argentina), ASN (France), CCSN (Canada), FANR (United Arab Emirates), HAEA (Hungary), NNR (South Africa), NNSA (China), NRA (Japan), NRC (United States), NSSC (South Korea), ONR (United Kingdom), RTN (Russian Federation), SSM (Sweden), STUK (Finland), TAEK (Turkey). Organisation The broad outlines of the work achieved within the MDEP are defined by its Strategy Committee and implemented by the Steering Technical Committee (STC). Since February 2015, the STC has been chaired by an ASN Deputy Director General. The work is performed by working groups which meet periodically to deal on the one hand with specific projects for nuclear reactors - the Design Specific Working Groups (DSWG) and on the other with specific technical subjects - the Issue Specific Working Group (ISWG). The DSWG groups devoted to the EPR reactor (comprising the safety regulators of China, the United States, France, Finland, India, the United Kingdom and Sweden), to the AP1000 reactor (comprising the safety regulators of Canada, China, the United States, the United Kingdom and Sweden) and the APR1400 reactor (comprising the safety regulators of South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, United States and Finland), were supplemented in 2014 by a group devoted to the VVER reactor (in which the safety regulators of Finland, India, Russia and Turkey in particular take part) and a group devoted to the ABWR reactor (safety regulators of the United States, Finland, Japan, the United Kingdom and Sweden). Also worth noting is the September 2017 decision by the Strategy Committee to create an additional working group specifically for the design of the Chinese HPR1000 (Hualong One). Three ISWG groups are working on harmonising the multinational inspection of nuclear component manufacturers (Vendor Inspection Cooperation Working Group - VICWG), on standards and codes for pressure vessel components (Codes and Standards Working Group - CSWG), and on design standards for digital I&C (Digital Instrumentation and Control Working Group - DICWG). Activities Concerning the MDEP activities in 2017, particularly noteworthy is the organisation of its 4th conference in September 2017. This is a forum for discussions about new nuclear reactor designs by the leading international nuclear safety regulators and representatives of the nuclear industry and international standards development organisations. 2017 thus enabled MDEP to observe the performance of an FPOT (First Plant Only Test) concerning vibration on the Taishan 1 reactor vessel internals (March  2017). The ongoing studies of the transfer of the working groups dedicated to MDEP cross-cutting subjects to the NEA led first of all to the creation of a new Working Group on Digital Instrumentation and Control (WGDIC) within the NEA’s Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA). Finally, the MDEP makes sure that it maintains its interactions with the nuclear industry by organising specific meetings with the designers and the Cordel group - Cooperation in Reactor Design Evaluation and Licensing - of the World Nuclear Association (WNA).