ASN Report 2015

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nuclear energy for the first time into contact with the
safety regulators of the major nuclear countries, so that
their needs can be identified and the required support can
be coordinated, to ensure that fundamental nuclear safety
objectives can be met (independence of the regulator,
appropriate legal and regulatory framework, etc.). The
RCF tries to coordinatewith the EuropeanCommission in
order to target the steps to be taken and avoid duplicating
the efforts of the safety regulators (for example a seminar
was held in May 2015).
3.2 OECD’s Nuclear Energy
Agency (NEA)
NEA, created in 1958, now counts 31member countries
from Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific
region. Its main role is to assist the member countries in
maintaining and developing the scientific, technological
and legal bases essential for safe, environmentally-friendly
and economic utilisation of nuclear energy.
During the course of 2015, NEA continued its analysis of
experience feedback fromthe FukushimaDaiichi accident,
both through its working groups and at specific seminars.
ASN thus contributes to the work initiated by NEA to
update the report entitled “The FukushimaDaiichi Nuclear
Power Plant Accident: OECD/NEANuclear Safety Response
and Lessons Learnt”,published in September 2013, which
presented the summary of the steps taken by the NEA
member countries and defined working priorities on
various subjects identified following the accident. Pierre-
FranckChevet and Jean-ChristopheNiel, ASNChairman
and Director General respectively, spoke at the seminar
organised by the NEA on 3rd June 2015, concerning the
safety culture in place in the regulators’ organisations.
WithinNEA, ASN takes part in thework of the Committee
onNuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA), chaired since
December 2012 by Jean-Christophe Niel, 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).
ASNalsocontributedtoFrance’sanswerstothequestionnaire
sent out by theNEA toprepare for the newstrategic action
plan covering the period 2017-2022 and which will in
particular define themain objectives to be reached for the
work of the CNRA and the CSNI.
In 2015, the CNRA supervised the work of these four
working groups covering a varietyof fields (WorkingGroup
onOperating Experience,WorkingGroup on Inspection
Practises,WorkingGroup onPublicCommunication and
Working Group on the Regulation of New Reactors).
It also set upworking groups specifically for the following
topics:
• “Defence in depth”: chaired by Jean-Luc Lachaume. This
groupdrafteda specific greenpaperwhichwas published
at the end of 2015;
• “Safety culture”: this group looked at the safety culture
characteristicswithin the safety regulator organisations
and published a specific green paper in January 2016.
ASN also chairs a technical group devoted to inspection
practices (WGIP – Working Group on Inspection
Practices), which is in particular developing a programme
of observation of inspections conducted in the various
member countries. Representatives from the working
group thus observed an inspection on the Bugey NPP
organised in the autumn of 2015.
Additional information on the AEN/CNRA
activities are avalaible on the folowing website:
3.3 The Multinational Reactor
Design Evaluation Program (MDEP)
TheMDEP (Multinational DesignEvaluationProgramme),
created in2006, is an international cooperative initiative to
develop innovative approaches for pooling the resources and
know-howoftheregulatorybodieswhichhaveresponsibility
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 aremembers
of the MDEP, NEA is responsible for the technical
secretariat of this programme. An ASN staff member
is seconded to NEA to help with this task.
Meeting between Pierre-Franck Chevet and Yukiya Amano, IAEA Director General, ASN, 27th May 2015.
210 CHAPTER 07: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2015