ASN Report 2017

128 ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2017 Chapter 04  - Regulation of nuclear activities and exposure to ionising radiation 1. Verifying that the licensee assumes its responsibilities 1.1 The principles of ASN’s oversight duties ASN oversight aims primarily to ensure that those responsible for an activity effectively meet their obligations. ASN applies the principle of proportionality when determining its actions, so that the scope, conditions and extent of its regulatory action is commensurate with the human and environmental protection implications involved. When applicable, this oversight can call on the support of the French Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) It applies to all the phases of performance of the activity, including the decommissioning phase for nuclear facilities: ཛྷ ཛྷ before the licensee exercises an activity subject to authorisation, by reviewing and analysing the files, documents and information provided by the licensee to justify its project with regard to safety and radiation protection. This verification aims to ensure I n France, the party responsible for a nuclear activity must ensure that this activity is safe. They cannot delegate this responsibility, and must ensure permanent surveillance of both this activity and the equipment used. Given the risks linked to ionising radiation for humans and the environment, the State regulates nuclear activities, a task it has entrusted to ASN. Control and regulation of nuclear activities is a fundamental responsibility of ASN. Its aim is to verify that all licensees fully assume their responsibility and comply with the requirements of the regulations relative to nuclear safety and radiation protection, in order to protect people and the environment from risks associated with radioactivity. Inspection is the key means of monitoring available to ASN. Inspection involves one or more ASN inspectors going to the site or department being inspected or to carriers of radioactive substances. It consists in performing spot checks on the conformity of a given situation with regulatory or technical baseline requirements but may also include an assessment of the licensee’s practices by comparison with current best practices. After the inspection, a follow-up letter is sent to the person responsible for the inspected site or activity and published on www.asn.fr . Any non-compliance found during the inspection can lead to administrative or criminal penalties. Nuclear activities are also regulated by ASN through various actions: ཛྷ ཛྷ authorisation, following analysis of the applicant’s demonstration that its activities are satisfactorily managed in terms of radiation protection and safety; ཛྷ ཛྷ operating experience feedback, more specifically through analysis of significant events; ཛྷ ཛྷ approval of organisations and laboratories taking part in radioactivity measurements and radiation protection inspections and qualification of pressure equipment monitoring organisations; ཛྷ ཛྷ presence in the field, also frequently outside actual inspections. ASN has a vision of control and regulation encompassing material, organisational and human aspects. Following safety and radiation protection assessments in each activity sector, its inspections lead to issue of resolutions, binding requirements, inspection follow-up documents, plus penalties as applicable. In 2017, ASN decided to make the scope and depth of the inspections more adaptable, by taking account of both the risks inherent in the activities and the behaviour of those responsible for the activity. These changes will be implemented as of 2018. that the information and demonstration supplied are both relevant and sufficient; ཛྷ ཛྷ during exercise of the activity, by visits, inspections, verification of licensee operations entailing significant potential consequences, review of reports supplied by the licensee and analysis of significant events. This oversight includes an analysis of any justifications provided by the licensee. To consolidate the effectiveness and quality of its actions, ASN is adopting an approach involving continuous improvement of its regulatory practices. It uses the experience feedback from forty years of nuclear activity oversight and the exchange of best practices with its foreign counterparts. 1.2 The scope of regulation of nuclear activities Article L. 592-22 of the Environment Code states that ASN must regulate compliance with the general rules and particular requirements of safety and radiation protection, applicable to: ཛྷ ཛྷ licensees of BNIs; ཛྷ ཛྷ the manufacturers and users of Nuclear Pressure Equipment (NPE) used in the BNIs; ཛྷ ཛྷ those in charge of radioactive substances transport;