ASN Report 2017

73 ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2017 Chapter 02  - The principles of nuclear safety and radiation protection and the regulation and oversight stakeholders ཛྷ ཛྷ The Communication and Public Information Department (DCI) is responsible for developing and implementing ASN’s policy on communication and information regarding nuclear safety and radiation protection. It coordinates communication and information actions targeting different audiences, with a focus on handling requests for documentation, making ASN’s position known and explaining regulations. The DCI comprises two Branches: “Public Information” and “Publications and Multimedia”. ཛྷ ཛྷ The Office of Administration (SG) helps to provide ASN with the adequate, appropriate and long-term resources necessary for it to function. It is responsible for managing human resources, including with regard to skills, and for developing social dialogue. It is also responsible for ASN real estate policy and its logistical and material resources. It is in charge of ASN budget policy and ensures optimised use of its financial resources. Finally, it provides legal expertise for ASN as a whole. The SG comprises four Branches: “Human Resources”, “Budget and Finance”, “Logistics and Real Estate” and “Legal Affairs”. ཛྷ ཛྷ The Management and Expertise Office (MEA) provides ASN with IT resources and a high level of expertise. It ensures that ASN’s actions are coherent, by means of a quality approach and by overseeing coordination of the workforce. The MEA comprises three Branches: “Information Technology and Telephony”, “Expertise and Research” and “Coordination and Quality”. ASN regional divisions For many years, ASN has benefited from a regional organisation built around its eleven regional divisions. These regional divisions operate under the authority of the regional representatives. The Director of the Regional Directorate for the Environment, Planning and Housing (Dreal) or of the Regional and Interdepartmental Directorate for the Environment and Energy (Driee) in which the division in question is located takes on this responsibility as regional representative. He or she is placed at the disposal of ASN to fulfil this role which is not exercised under the authority of the Prefect. This person is delegated with power of signature by the ASN Chairman for decisions at the local level. The regional divisions carry out most of the direct inspections on the BNIs, on radioactive substance transport operations and on small-scale nuclear activities, and review most of the authorisation applications filed with ASN by the nuclear activity licensees within their regions. They are organised into two to four hubs, depending on the activities to be regulated in their territory. In emergency situations, the regional divisions assist the Prefect, who is in charge of protecting the general public, and supervise the operations carried out to safeguard the facility on the site. To ensure preparedness for these situations, they take part in drawing up the emergency plans drafted by the Prefects and in periodic emergency exercises. FOCUS The State’s regional reforms and ASN Following the adoption by Parliament of Act 2015-991 of 7th August 2015 constituting the new regional reorganisation of the Republic and then the Prime Minister’s presentation to the Cabinet of Ministers on 31st July 2015 of the provisional list of the capitals of the new regions and the reorganisation of the local government administrations, ASN analysed the impact of these reforms on its regional organisation and defined the following orientations: ཛྷ ཛྷ maintain all of ASN’s geographical sites; ཛྷ ཛྷ define an organisation and a working method such as to reinforce integration of the DEP within the head office departments and develop its relations, more specifically with the DCN and the DRC; ཛྷ ཛྷ have the Lille division take charge of radiation protection oversight within the perimeter of the former Picardie region; ཛྷ ཛྷ have the Bordeaux division take charge of radiation protection oversight within the perimeter of the former Limousin region; ཛྷ ཛྷ define new methods for ASN organisation and operation in the Grand Est region; ཛྷ ཛྷ examine the regulation and oversight of nuclear safety and radiation protection in the Occitanie region. An oversight committee was set up to monitor the implementation of these orientations. This resulted notably in a modification to the resolution concerning the organisation of the ASN services (ASN resolution 2012-DC-0256 of 12th January 2012). The files handled by the “small-scale nuclear facilities” centre in Orleans for the Limousin region were transferred on 1st July 2017 to the Bordeaux division and those of Picardie, initially dealt with by the Châlons-en- Champagne division, to the Lille division on 1st January 2018. With regard to the Occitanie region, the work led to the conclusion that the issue of the distance of the Marseille and Bordeaux divisions from stakeholders in the small-scale nuclear sector in Occitanie did not warrant creating an ASN division in Toulouse. However, steps were taken to improve operations to ensure effective oversight of nuclear activities, such as the development of grouped inspections for the locations most remote from the divisions. With regard to the Grand Est region, the choice was taken to maintain two divisions, one in Châlons-en-Champagne and the other in Strasbourg. The issue was to harmonise the operation of the two sites, which represents a long-term undertaking. With regard to organisation and operation, this more particularly implies scheduling work across the two divisions. Finally, with regard to the DEP, which is located in Dijon, in-depth work was carried out concerning its duties, its relations and its operating methods.