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•
A delegation of ASN staff took part in a medical
peer-inspection on 27th May 2015 on the site of the
Berezin International Institute of biological systems
in Saint-Petersburg.
•
A delegation of staff from ASN went to Moscow on
7th and 8th July 2015 to continue to share the lessons
learned from the stress tests performed on the NPPs in
France andRussia. The aimwas to discuss the hypotheses
adopted in the assessment of safety margins.
In parallel with the IAEA general conference, on
15th September 2015, Pierre-Franck Chevet and
Alexey Ferapontov, DeputyDirector of RTN, met to review
the progress of the cooperation between the two entities.
The subjects covered included the organisation of peer
inspections on research reactors and they discussed the
benefits to be gained fromexchanges concerning Periodic
Safety Reviews in the stress tests follow-up context
.
Finland
There has been longstanding cooperationbetweenASNand
its Finnish counterpart STUK, especially in the area of the
management of waste and of spent fuel. But cooperation
has been significantly enhanced in recent years owing to
the construction of an EPR type reactor at the Finnish
site of Olkiluoto (see chapter 12 point 2.10.3).
Ireland
In 2015, ASN continued its collaboration with its Irish
counterparts. Abilateralmeeting held in January inDublin,
enabled ASN to make contact with its new interlocutor,
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). EPA has
been in charge of radiation protection issues since its
2014 merger with the Radiological Protection Institute
of Ireland (RPII), withwhich ASNhas always maintained
close cooperative relations. This cooperation in particular
concernsmanagement of the radon risk, which is a common
concern and a subject of past and future collaboration,
as is harmonisation of emergencymanagement. Medical
peer inspections are thus planned. Finally, as mentioned
in point 3 of this chapter, Margot Tirmarche led an IRRS
mission to Ireland in August-September 2015.
Israel
Even if regular exchangeswere held in the past betweenASN
and its Israeli counterpart, the NLSO (Nuclear Licensing
and Safety Office), linked to the IAEC (Israel Atomic
Energy Commission), 2015 provided an opportunity to
consolidate the relations between the two entities, with
the aim of signing a bilateral ASN-NLSO agreement at
the end of the year. This cooperation would primarily
concern the safety of research reactors, nuclear waste
management and radiation protection; it would also
promote personnel exchanges.
AnNLSOdelegation, led by its Director, Meir Markovits,
was therefore received in Montrouge in July 2015 by
Jean-Luc Lachaume. A bilateral meeting was held on
this occasion, followed by a visit organised by the Caen
division to the Ganil accelerator, in particular the Spiral 2
facility currently under construction.
Furthermore, on the sidelines of the IAEA General
Conference, on 16th September 2015, anASNdelegation
led by Commissioner Philippe Jamet met the Director
of the NLSO, to review cooperation between the two
entities and confirm the planned bilateral agreement.
Japan
Under the arrangements between ASN and its Japanese
counterpart, the NRA (Japan’s Nuclear Regulation
Authority), a bilateral steering committee meeting was
held in France on 9th and 10th September 2015. The
particularly warm exchanges notably concerned the
measures linked to the restart of reactors and the situation
on the site of the Fukushima Daiichi NPP, themonitoring
of implementation of “post-Fukushima” measures in
France and the management of radioactive waste. This
meeting was followed by a visit to the Aube repository
and Andra’s Bure underground laboratory.
Since 2010, the ASNLyon division hasmaintained regular
relations with the Japanese safety regulator, NRA, and
its technical support organisation, JNES (JapanNuclear
energy Safety Organisation, now integrated into the
NRA) and in 2015 it received a delegation of Japanese
inspectors. The discussions concerned safety culture and
the integration of SOHF. A visit to the EPR construction
site at Flamanville was also organised (see chapter 8).
Meeting with NRC Commissioner Stephen G. Burns, Washington (United States),
15th March 2015 (from left to right: Philippe Jamet, ASN Commissioner, Stephen G. NRC Chairman
and Jean-Christophe Niel, ASN Director General).
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CHAPTER 07:
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2015