5 / 536
•
The main industrial firms, Areva, CEA, EDF, who hold
prime responsibility for the safety of their installations,
are experiencing economic or financial difficulties.
Wide-reaching reorganisations are in progress. Time
will be needed for them to take full effect.
•
In 2016, ASN and the Institute for Radiation Protection
andNuclear Safety (IRSN) did not obtain the additional
human resources needed to meet these challenges.
In these conditions, ASN will be giving priority to
regulation of the installations in operation rather than
the examination of new installations. A situation such
as this is not however sustainable and ASN is once
again asking for a review of its financing, to enable it
to have appropriate resources able to meet its needs
and those of IRSN.
This worrying context must encourage all stakeholders
to exercise the greatest vigilance to ensure that safety
remains a priority. For its part, ASN will be attentive
to the technical and financial capacity of the industrial
firms, as well as to ensuring that they maintain in-house
skills that are vital for safety. It will also ensure that the
necessary safety investments are made.
The European safety approach undergoes
ambitious development
The Fukushima Daiichi accident focused attention on
reinforcing the provisions of the international convention
on nuclear safety, adopted after the Chernobyl accident.
A policy declaration was issued in February 2015: it
stipulates the reinforced safety objectives but imposes no
new corresponding obligations. This result, which ASN
deems disappointing, can be explained by the lack of a
shared view of the level of safety to be reached. In these
conditions, it is particularly important to maintain the
momentum created in Europe in this field, as illustrated
by the 2014 European Directive on nuclear safety, which
sets more ambitious requirements than those of the
international convention, and by the European radiation
protection Directive of 2013.
Montrouge, 1st March 2016
2
015
is similar to previous years: the nuclear
safety and radiation protection situation is
on the whole satisfactory.
The operating safety of the nuclear installations
has in particular been maintained at a good
level, although radiation protection requires particular
vigilance, especially in the medical field, with about
ten level 2 incidents occurring in 2015.
However, this positive evaluation for 2015 should
be moderated as the context is a worrying one, with
significant concerns for the future. This view is based
on three observations:
•
Safety and radiation protection challenges will grow
over the period 2015-2020:
-- The possible continued operation of the 900 MWe
reactors beyond their fourth periodic safety review
is a key issue. The generic opinion from ASN on
this subject will be issued no earlier than the end of
2018 after analysis of the studies yet to be produced
by EDF.
-- The other main nuclear installations, in particular
fuel cycle installations and research reactors, will
need to undergo a periodic safety review during the
same period. By the end of 2017, ASN will have to
begin to process about fifty review files.
-- The improvements to the installations required
following the Fukushima Daiichi accident must
continue to be deployed, in particular for the fixed
equipment of the “hardened safety core”, required to
supplement the mobile resources already in place.
-- The projects or construction sites for new installations,
EPR, Cigéo, RJH, ITER are behind schedule. Safety
is not generally a factor, except for the Flamanville
EPR vessel anomaly, which is being given special
treatment. This anomaly was discovered belatedly,
following requests made by ASN, rather than at
the initiative of the industrial firms concerned. A
check is therefore required on the items that were
manufactured in the past.
EDITORIAL BY THE COMMISSION
5
ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2015