ASN Report 2017

156 ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2017 Chapter 05  - Radiological emergency and post-accident situations 1. Anticipating Four main principles underpin the protection of the general public against BNI risks: ཛྷ ཛྷ risk reduction at source, wherein the licensee must take all steps to reduce the risks to a level that is as low as reasonably achievable in acceptable economic conditions; ཛྷ ཛྷ the emergency and contingency plans, designed to prevent and mitigate the consequences of an accident; ཛྷ ཛྷ controlling urban development around BNIs; ཛྷ ཛྷ informing the general public. 1.1 Looking ahead and planning 1.1.1 Emergency and contingency plans concerning BNIs The emergency and contingency plans relative to accidents occurring in a BNI define the measures necessary for protecting site personnel, the general public and the environment, and for controlling the accident. N uclear activities are carried out within a framework which aims to prevent accidents but also to mitigate their consequences. Despite all the precautions taken, an accident can never be completely ruled out and the necessary provisions for dealing with andmanaging a radiological emergency situation must be planned for and regularly tested and revised. Radiological emergency situations, resulting from an incident or accident liable to lead to an emission of radioactive substances or to a level of radioactivity potentially affecting public health, include: ཛྷ ཛྷ emergency situations arising in a Basic Nuclear Installation (BNI); ཛྷ ཛྷ accidents involving the Transport of Radioactive Materials (RMT); ཛྷ ཛྷ emergency situations occurring in the field of small-scale nuclear activities. Emergency situations affecting nuclear activities can also comprise non-radiological risks, such as fire, explosion or the release of toxic substances. These emergency situations are covered by specific material and organisational arrangements, which include the contingency plans and involve both the licensee and or the party responsible for the activity and the public authorities. The Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) is involved in managing these situations, with regard to questions concerning the regulation of nuclear safety and radiation protection and, backed more particularly by the expertise of its technical support organisation, the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), it has the following four key duties: ཛྷ ཛྷ check the steps taken by the licensee and ensure that they are pertinent; ཛྷ ཛྷ advise the authorities on population protection measures; ཛྷ ཛྷ take part in the dissemination of information to the population and media; ཛྷ ཛྷ act as Competent Authority within the framework of the international Conventions on Early Notification and Assistance. In 2005, ASN also set up a Steering Committee to prepare for management of the Post-Accident Phase (Codirpa) following on from the management of a radiological emergency. The doctrine published in November  2012 concerning the emergency phase exit, transitional and long-term periods, will be updated. Work is continuing on the management of waste and manufactured products as well as on the management of water and marine environments. The Major Nuclear or Radiological Accident National Response Plan, published by the Government in February  2014, which ASN helped to draft, takes account of the lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi accident and the post-accident doctrine drafted by the Codirpa, specifies the national response organisation in the event of a nuclear accident, the strategy to be applied and the main steps to be taken. It includes the international nature of emergencies and the mutual assistance possibilities in the case of an event. In 2015, the local implementation of this plan began in the French départements , under the supervision of the defence and security zone Prefects. In the vicinity of the facility, the Off-site Emergency Plan (PPI) is established by the Prefect of the département concerned pursuant to Articles L.741-6, R.741-8 et seq. of the Domestic Security Code, “to protect the populations, property and the environment, and to cope with the specific risks associated with the existence of structures and facilities whose perimeter is localised and fixed. The PPI implements the orientations of civil protection policy in terms of mobilisation of resources, information, alert, exercises