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2.11 Assistance programmes under
the Instrument for Nuclear Safety
Cooperation (INSC)
Following the collapse of the Soviet bloc, three priority
areas for assistance to the countries of Eastern Europe
were defined in the field of nuclear safety:
•
contribution to improving the operating safety of
existing reactors;
•
provision of funding for short-term improvements to
the least safe reactors;
•
improvement in the organisation of safety regulation,
making a clear distinction between the responsibilities of
the different entities concerned and reinforcing the role
and competence of national nuclear regulatory bodies.
In this context, Europe rapidly set up nuclear safety
cooperation instruments to ensure that the nuclear facilities
in the eastern part of Europe met IAEA safety standards.
There then followed a succession of instruments as the
geographical coverage of this cooperation expanded.
Since 2007, the Instrument forNuclear SafetyCooperation
(INSC) has been the tool used for all countries outside
the European Union, even if geographical priority is
given to the countries bordering the European Union.
The concrete assistance provided by ASN via the INSC
primarily took the formof help to nuclear safety regulatory
bodies. In2015, ASN thus tookpart in regulatory assistance
projects onbehalf of the safety regulators of China, Ukraine,
Vietnam and Morocco.
Regulation (Euratom) 237/2014 of the European
Parliament and the Council, dated 13thDecember 2013,
revised the instrument for nuclear safety cooperation
for the period from 1st January 2014 to 31st December
2020 with a budget envelope of € 225.3 million, owing
to European budget restrictions.
The HERCA action plan for transposition
and application of the new BSS Directive
Even if HERCA has no official role in the BSS Directive
transposition process, it can nonetheless make an effective
contribution to it. Its aim is not to achieve uniform transposition
or application in national legislations, because the Member
States remain free to decide on the extent to which they use
the association’s work.
In this respect, during its 14th meeting (21st and
22nd October 2014), the HERCA board approved an action
plan on transposition and application of the new BSS Directive
(Council Directive 2013/59/Euratom, available on the
www.herca.org website).
This action plan covers the following points:
• definition of the role of HERCA In the transposition of the
BSS Directive into specific national regulations;
• choice of steps to be taken for transposition of the
BSS Directive;
• coordination between HERCA and the European Commission
with regard to the actions considered.
The role of HERCA in the transposition of the BSS Directive,
as defined, consists more specifically in:
• acting as a collaborative platform for identifying and
analysing the technical and practical problems relating to
regulations, discussing national approaches and presenting
the planned studies concerning the application of the
BSS Directive and its results;
• looking for a consensus on the new requirements and the
common approaches and defining guidelines whenever
possible and appropriate;
UNDERSTAND
• providing information on the transposition processes, sharing the
experiences of the safety regulators;
• playing an active role with the European Commission so that the
European Authorities responsible for radiation protection make
their voices heard in the drafting of radiation protection policies and
BSS guidelines;
• contributing to the transposition and application of the
BSS Directive paying particular attention to the fields in which
transboundary processes are implemented.
The actions to be carried out concern the following areas:
• preparedness for and response to emergency situations
(international cooperation, respondents in an emergency situation,
reference values for public exposure levels in the event of an
emergency situation);
• medical exposure (medical equipment, justification – level 2 –,
education and training, notification of significant events);
• radon;
• exposure for non-medical imaging purposes;
• education and training: RPE/RPO (Radiation Protection Expert/
Radiation Protection Officer).
HERCA organised workshops:
• on implementation of the Council directive, Directive 13/59/
Euratom concerning preparedness and management of emergency
situations (Berlin, 13th-14th April 2015);
• on the respective roles of the Radiation Protection Expert (RPE)
and the Radiation Protection Officer (RPO) (Montrouge,
6th-8th July 2015);
• on the action plan concerning exposure to radon in the workplace
(Geneva, 12th-14th October 2015).
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CHAPTER 07:
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2015