ASN Report 2017

70 ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2017 Chapter 02  - The principles of nuclear safety and radiation protection and the regulation and oversight stakeholders or sub-contractors and in the same conditions as within the facilities themselves. The Sanctions Commission set up within ASN will determine the administrative fines in order to comply with the principle of separation between the investigation, charging and sentencing functions instituted in French law and in international conventions with regard to the right to a fair trial. Chapter 4 of this report describes ASN actions in this field. Emergency situations ASN takes part in managing radiological emergency situations. It provides technical assistance to the competent Authorities for the drafting of emergency response plans, taking account of the risks resulting from nuclear activities. When such an emergency situation occurs, ASN verifies the steps taken by the licensee to make the facility safe. It assists the Government with all matters within its field of competence and submits its recommendations on the medical or health measures or civil protection steps to be taken. It informs the general public of the situation, of any releases into the environment and their consequences. It acts as the Competent Authority within the framework of international conventions, by notifying international organisations and foreign countries of the accident. Chapter 5 of this report describes ASN actions in this field. In the event of an incident or accident concerning a nuclear activity and pursuant to Decree 2007-1572 of 6th November 2007 concerning technical inquiries into accidents or incidents concerning a nuclear activity, ASN may carry out a technical inquiry. Information ASN participates in informing the public in its areas of competence. Chapter 6 of this report describes ASN actions in this field. Research monitoring The quality of ASN’s resolutions and decisions relies primarily on robust technical expertise which, in turn, requires the best and most up-to-date knowledge. In this field, the Ordinance of 10th February 2016 comprises provisions giving ASN competence to ensure that public research is tailored to the needs of nuclear safety and radiation protection. “ASN keeps track of national and international research and development work on nuclear safety and radiation protection. It formulates any proposals or recommendations concerning research needs in nuclear safety and radiation protection. These proposals and recommendations are communicated to the Ministers and to the public stakeholders exercising the research duties concerned so that they can be taken into account in the orientations and the definition of the research and development programmes of interest for safety” (Article L. 592-31-1 of the Environment Code). Consequently, ASN is already concerned about the availability of the knowledge required to underpin the expertise it may need to call upon in the medium and long term. ASN is also attentive to the quality of research initiatives with a view to their integration by the licensees into their safety cases and impact assessments. ASN takes part in IRSN’s steering committee on research and draws on the expertise of a Scientific Committee to examine its proposed orientations concerning the research work to be conducted or taken further in the fields of nuclear safety and radiation protection. In a modified decision dated 8th July 2014, the ASN Commission renewed for a further four years the mandates of the nine members of the Scientific Committee, appointed for their expertise in the field of research. Under the chairmanship of Mr. Ashok Thadani, former head of research at the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the committee comprises Mr. Bernard Boullis, Mr. Jean-Claude Lehmann, Mr. Michel Schwarz, Mr. Michel Spiro, Mr. Victor Teschendorff, Ms. Christelle Roy and Ms. Catherine Luccioni. The Scientific Committee met twice in 2017. On the basis of the work done by the Scientific Committee, ASN issued a first opinion in April 2012 underlining the importance it attaches to research, and identifying the initial research topics to be further investigated in the fields of nuclear safety and radiation protection. A second opinion was issued in early 2015 on the research topics to be taken further in the following fields: ཛྷ ཛྷ waste packaging; ཛྷ ཛྷ deep geological disposal; ཛྷ ཛྷ transport of radioactive substances; ཛྷ ཛྷ severe accidents. In 2016, a map of the various nuclear safety and radiation protection research players was produced for an end-of- training course professional thesis entrusted by ASN to a trainee engineer. On the basis of this map, ASN established numerous contacts with public research organisations active in fields directly linked to those areas which it felt needed to be reinforced. This approach will be consolidated to enable ASN to inform these players of the research fields it considers to be priorities for improving nuclear safety and radiation protection. The Fukushima Daiichi accident also highlighted the need for more research in the field of nuclear safety. A Call for Projects (AAP) in the field of nuclear safety was therefore issued by the French National Research Agency (ANR) under the Investing in the Future programme. ASN is a member of the steering committee for this Call for Projects. A third ASN opinion under preparation on the research subjects to be taken further regarding nuclear safety and radiation protection should be published in 2018. In addition, within the framework of the support given to Andra by the General Commissariat for Major Investments for research into nuclear waste, Andra decided to issue a Call for Projects entitled “Optimisation of Decommissioning Radioactive Waste Management” .