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ASN considers this Convention to be a major tool in
reinforcing nuclear safety. The areas covered by the
Convention have long been part of the French approach
to nuclear safety.
The Convention makes provision for reviewmeetings
by the contracting parties every three years, to develop
cooperation and the exchange of experience. Several
months before the review meeting is held, each
contracting party is required to submit a national report
describing how it intends to meet the obligations of
the Convention. This report is then subjected to a peer
review ahead of the review meeting, which involves
the contracting parties asking questions about foreign
national reports and answering questions about their
own. During the meeting, the contracting parties present
their national reports and take part in discussions, which
can then raise additional questions. A summary report,
drawn up by the meeting chairman and made public,
presents the progress achieved and any difficulties
that subsist.
In France, ASN acts as the competent authority for the
Convention on Nuclear Safety. It coordinates all the
preparatory phases prior to the review meetings, in
close collaborationwith the entities concerned. ASN also
devotes considerable resources so that it can participate
in the review meetings and be present at the various
presentations and discussions.
Since 1999, six review meetings of the Convention on
Nuclear Safety have been held. The sixth reviewmeeting
was held from 24th March to 4th April 2014 at IAEA
headquarters in Vienna. André-Claude Lacoste, ASN
Chairman until 2012, chaired this three-yearlymeeting,
attended by 69 of the 77 “contracting parties” to the
Convention.
During this review meeting, the contracting parties
voted in favour of organising a diplomatic conference,
with the unanimous support of the Member States of
the European Union, to review a proposal by the Swiss
Confederation to amend the text of the Convention.
This amendment aims to strengthen the Convention by
incorporating more ambitious safety objectives for the
future reactors and using these same objectives as the
benchmark for improving the safety of existing reactors
as far as is reasonably achievable.
ASN observes that the conclusions of the diplomatic
conference, held in Vienna on 9th February 2015, went
no further than a political declaration which does not
reinforce the legal obligations of the signatory States.
The general safety objectives of the Convention remain
below the legally binding requirements of the European
Nuclear SafetyDirective, revised in 2014. In any case, this
result is not sufficient to address the issues highlighted
by the Fukushima Daiichi accident. ASN will continue
to promote the highest standards of nuclear safety on
the international stage. The organisation meeting for
the 7th review meeting (scheduled from 27th March to
17th April 2017), held in Vienna on 15thOctober 2015
elected the officers for the next reviewmeeting. They are
Ramzi Jamal (CNSC, Canada), who followed André-
Claude Lacoste as President of the CSN, and Fabien Féron
(ASN, France) as Chairman of a country group. This
meetingwas also an opportunity for André-Claude Lacoste
to submit his recommendations for drafting the future
national reports, in particular to ensure that the principles
of the Vienna declaration are included in these reports.
4.2 The Joint Convention
on the Safety of Spent Fuel
Management and on the Safety
of Radioactive Waste Management
The “Joint Convention” as it is often called, is the
equivalent of the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS)
for management of the spent fuel and radioactive waste
produced by civil nuclear activities. France signed it
on 29th September 1997 and it entered into force on
18th June 2001. As at 31st December 2014, there were
69 contracting parties.
The French proposal to set up amechanism for comparing
the review rules for the Joint Convention and those for
the Convention onNuclear Safety to ensure that they are
consistent, was adopted andput intopractice. Furthermore,
at the proposal of the United States, additional meetings
designed to ensure follow-up between the reviewmeetings
will be organised.
The 5th reviewmeeting of the Joint Conventionwas held
from11th to 22ndMay 2015 and the ASNCommissioner
Philippe Jamet, acted as Vice-Chairman.
This review meeting comprised two parts. During the
first week, each contracting party presented its national
report. That of France was presented on 13thMay 2015
by Jean-Christophe Niel. A presentation by Andra’s CEO,
Pierre-Marie Abadie, gave the licensee’s viewpoint on a
certain number of subjects. The maint points and issues
for spent fuel and radioactive waste management in
France were identified and validated by the participants
after a question-and-answer session. These primarily
concerned the planned deep disposal project called Cigeo
(geological characteristics, concept of reversibility and
acceptance by the public), management of nuclear facility
decommissioning waste, management of legacy waste and
used sealed sources, or the financial provisions made for
the decommissioning of nuclear facilities. The second
week was devoted to plenary session exchanges and to
the publication of the Chairman’s report approved by
the contracting parties at the end of the reviewmeeting.
These discussions identified the fact that promoting
membership by newStates is once again a priority. In this
respect, a consultationmeeting of the contracting parties
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CHAPTER 07:
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2015