ASN Report 2018

1 —  ASN objectives in Europe and worldwide 1. The national delegations are made up half by heads of safety Regulators and half by representatives from Ministries for the Environment or Energy. The approach for sharing, harmonising and improving knowledge and practices requires that ASN work in three main circles of cooperation. At a bilateral level, ASN first of all cooperates with numerous countries under bilateral agreements, which can be governmental agreements or administrative arrangements. Bilateral relations allow direct exchanges on topical subjects and the rapid implementation of cooperation measures, sometimes on behalf of joint initiatives within a European or multilateral framework, which can lead to the drafting of new safety or radiation protection baseline requirements. They are also essential in the management of emergency situations. At a European level, the regulatory context has changed since 2009, with the adoption, updating and implementation of three European Directives on nuclear safety (Council Directive 2009/71/Euratom of 25 June 2009 creating a community framework for the nuclear safety of nuclear facilities/revised 2014), waste legislation (Council Directive 2011/70/Euratom of 19 July 2011 creating a community framework for the responsible and safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste) and radiation protection (Council Directive 2013/59/Euratom of 5 December 2013 setting basic standards for health protection against the dangers arising from exposure to ionising radiation and repealing Directives 89/618/Euratom, 90/641/Euratom, 96/29/Euratom, 97/43/Euratom and 2003/122/Euratom). In the construction of this legal framework for nuclear safety, the European Commission is supported by ENSREG (European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group) which brings together experts from the European Commission and member countries of the European Union (1) . The safety regulators also set up voluntary associations, such as the European Nuclear Regulators Association (WENRA), the Heads of the European Radiological protection Competent Authorities (HERCA) and the European Association of Competent Authorities (EACA) for the transport of radioactive materials, which, jointly with the Technical Support Organisations (TSO), provide the regulators and the Commission with technical support. At a multilateral level, cooperation takes place within the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a UN agency founded in 1957, and the OECD’s Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), created in 1958. These two agencies are the most important inter-governmental organisations in the field of nuclear safety and radiation protection. 1.1  ̶  Giving priority to Europe Europe is one of the priority areas for ASN’s international actions. The aim is to contribute to sharing, harmonisation and improving knowledge and practices in the fields of nuclear safety, the safety of waste and spent fuel management and radiation protection. With regard to nuclear safety and the safe management of waste and spent fuel, ASN takes part in two informal organisations working more specifically in favour of European harmonisation: ENSREG and WENRA. ENSREG was created in 2008 and led to a political consensus on European Directives concerning nuclear safety in June 2009, followed by spent fuel management and waste in July 2011. This institution also took part in a process to revise the Nuclear Safety Directive proposed by the European Commission in 2013, following on from the review further to the Fukushima Daiichi accident. Each safety regulator then provided technical advice to its government responsible for the negotiations in Brussels, until its revision on 8 July 2014. CHAPTER 06 T hrough a range of bilateral, European and multilateral cooperation frameworks which it develops or in which it participates, ASN aims to promote the definition of ambitious international references, in order to make known French positions and doctrines which could contribute to this promotion and to draw on the best practices from around the world to advance nuclear safety and radiation protection. International actions should enable its approach to nuclear safety and radiation protection issues and the European approach to be consolidated. This process of sharing, harmonisation and improvement of knowledge and practices also includes cooperation on any significant nuclear events and accidents (Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi) in which France has played a key post-accident management role since 2011. These actions as a whole are based on the legislative provisions of the Environment Code. They more particularly state that, within its scope of competence, ASN proposes France’s positions on international negotiations to the Government and represents France in international and community organisations in this field. International relations 184  ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2018