ASN Report 2015

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• guideNo. 11of 7thOctober 2009, updated in July 2015,
is intended for those in charge of nuclear activities as
defined in Article L. 1333-1 of the Public Health Code
and the heads of the facilities inwhich ionising radiation
is used (medical, industrial and research activities using
ionising radiation).
TheseguidescanbeconsultedontheASNwebsite
What is a significant event?
Detectionof events (deviations, anomalies, incidents, etc.)
by those in charge of the activities using ionising radiation,
and implementation of correctivemeasures decided after
analysis, play a fundamental role in accident prevention.
The nuclear licensees detect and analyse several hundred
anomalies each year for each EDF reactor and about fifty
per year for any given research facility.
Prioritising the anomalies shouldenable themost important
ones to be addressed first. ASN has defined a category of
anomalies called “significant events”. These are events that
are sufficiently important in terms of safety or radiation
protection to justify rapidnotificationof ASN, with amore
complete analysis subsequently being sent to it. Significant
events must be notified to it, as specified in the Order of
7th February 2012 (Art. 2.6.4), the Public Health Code
(Articles L. 1333-3 andR. 1333-109 toR. 1333-111) and
the Labour Code (Article R. 4451-99).
The criteria for notifying the public authorities of events
considered tobe “significant” take account of the following:
• the actual or potential consequences for workers, the
public, patients or the environment, of events that could
occur and affect nuclear safety or radiation protection;
• themain technical, human or organisational causes that
led to the occurrence of such an event.
This notification process is part of the continuous safety
improvement approach. It requires the active participation
of all licensees (users of ionising radiation, carriers, etc.)
in the detection and analysis of deviations.
It enables the authorities:
• to ensure that the licensee has suitably analysed the
event and taken appropriate measures to remedy the
situation and prevent it happening again;
• to analyse the event in the light of the experience available
to other parties in charge of similar activities.
The purpose of this system is not to identify or penalise
any individual person or party. Moreover, the number
and rating on the INES scale (International Nuclear and
Radiological Event Scale) of the significant events which
have occurred in a nuclear facility are not on their own
indicators of the facility’s level of safety. On the one hand,
a given rating level is an over-simplification and is unable
to reflect the complexity of an event and, on the other, the
number of events listeddepends on the level of notification.
The trend in the number of events does not therefore reflect
any real trend in the safety level of the facility concerned.
3.3.2 Implementation of the approach
Event notification
In the event of an incident or accident, whether or not
nuclear, with actual or potential significant consequences
for the safety of the facility or the transport operation, or
which is liable toharmpeople, propertyor the environment
through significant exposure to ionising radiation, the
licensee or person responsible for the nuclear activity is
obliged to notify ASN and the state representative in the
département without delay.
According to the provisions of the Labour Code,
employers are obliged to declare significant events
affecting their workers. When the head of a facility
carrying out a nuclear activity calls in an external
contractor or non-salaried worker, the significant
events affecting salaried or non-salaried workers are
notified in accordance with the prevention plans and
the agreements concluded pursuant to Article R. 4451-8
of the Labour Code.
The notifying party assesses the urgency of notification
in the light of the confirmed or potential seriousness of
the event and the speed of reaction necessary to avoid an
aggravationof the situationor tomitigate the consequences
of the event. The notification time of two working days,
tolerated in the ASN notification guide, does not apply
when the consequences of the event require intervention
by the public authorities.
ASN analysis of the notification
ASN analyses the initial notification to check the
implementationof immediate correctivemeasures, todecide
whether to conduct an on-site inspection to analyse the
event in depth, and to prepare for informing the public
if necessary.
Within twomonths of the notification, it is followed by a
report indicating the conclusions the licensee has drawn
from analysis of the events and the steps it intends to take
to improve safety or radiation protection and prevent
the event from happening again. This information is
taken into account by ASN and its technical support
organisation, IRSN, in the preparation of the inspection
programme and when performing the BNI periodic
safety reviews.
ASN ensures that the licensee has analysed the event
pertinently, has taken appropriate steps to remedy the
situation andprevent it fromrecurring, andhas circulated
the operating experience feedback.
ASN’s review focuses on compliance with the applicable
rules for detecting and notifying significant events, the
immediate technical, organisational or human measures
taken by the licensee tomaintain or bring the installation
into a safe condition, and the pertinence of the submitted
analysis.
144 CHAPTER 04: REGULATION OF NUCLEAR ACTIVITIES AND EXPOSURE TO IONISING RADIATION
ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2015