ASN Report 2017

78 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 The CLIs, whose creation is incumbent upon the President of the General Council of the département, comprise various categories of members: representatives of département General Councils, of the municipal councils or representative bodies of the groups of communities and the Regional Councils concerned, members of Parliament elected in the département, representatives of environmental protection associations, economic interests and representative trade union and medical profession union organisations, and qualified personalities. The status of the CLIs was defined by the TSN Act of 13th June 2006 and by Decree 2008-251 of 12th March 2008. The duties and activities of the CLIs are described in chapter 6.
 2.5 ASN Technical support organisations ASN benefits from the expertise of technical support organisations to prepare its decisions. IRSN is the main one. For several years now, ASN has been devoting efforts to ensuring greater diversification of its experts. 2.5.1 IRSN IRSN was created by Act 2001-398 of 9th May 2001 setting up a French environmental health safety agency and by Decree 2002-254 of 22nd February 2002 as part of the national reorganisation of nuclear safety and radiation protection regulation, in order to bring together public expert assessment and research resources in these fields. These texts have since been modified, notably by Article 186 (V) of the TECV Act and Decree 2016-283 of 10th March 2016 concerning IRSN. IRSN reports to the Ministers for the Environment, Defence, Energy, Research and Health respectively. Article L.592-45 of the Environment Code specifies that IRSN is a State public industrial and commercial institution which carries out expert analysis and assessment and research missions in the field of nuclear safety – excluding any responsibility as nuclear licensee. IRSN contributes to information of the public and publishes the opinions requested by a public authority or ASN, in consultation with them. It organises the publicity of scientific data resulting from the research programmes run at its initiative, with the exception of those relating to defence matters. For the performance of its missions, ASN receives technical support from IRSN. As the ASN Chairman is now a member of the IRSN Board, ASN contributes to setting the direction of IRSN’s strategic planning. IRSN conducts and implements research programmes in order to build its public expertise capacity on the very latest national and international scientific knowledge in the fields of nuclear and radiological risks. It is tasked with providing technical support for the public authorities with competence for safety, radiation protection and security, in both the civilian and defence sectors. IRSN also has certain public service responsibilities, in particular monitoring of the environment and of populations exposed to ionising radiation. IRSN manages national databases (national nuclear material accounting, national inventory of ionising radiation sources, file for monitoring worker exposure to ionising radiation, etc.), and thus contributes to information of the public concerning the risks linked to ionising radiation. IRSN workforce As at 31st December 2017, IRSN’s overall workforce stood at 1,700 employees, of which 400 are devoted to ASN technical support. IRSN budget The IRSN budget is presented in point 3. A five-year agreement defines the principles and procedures for the technical support provided to ASN by the Institute. This agreement is clarified on a yearly basis by a protocol identifying the actions to be performed by IRSN to support ASN. 2.5.2 Advisory Committees of Experts To prepare its decisions, ASN relies on the opinions and recommendations of seven Advisory Committees of Experts (GPE), with competence for waste, Nuclear Pressure Equipment (NPE), reactors, transport, laboratories and plants, medical radiation protection, radiation protection in non- medical sectors and the environment, respectively. At the request of ASN, the GPEs issue opinions on certain technical dossiers with significant consequences. They can also be consulted about changes in regulations or doctrine. For each of the subjects covered, the GPEs examine the reports produced by IRSN, by a special working group or by one of the ASN departments. They issue an opinion which can be backed up by recommendations. TECV Act This Act clarifies the organisation of the system built around ASN and IRSN: ཛྷ ཛྷ It enshrines the existence and duties of IRSN within a new section 6 of the Environment Code entitled “The Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety” in Chapter 2 concerning “The Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN)” of Title IX of Book V of the Environment Code. ཛྷ ཛྷ It recalls that ASN benefits from IRSN technical support, indicating that this support comprises expert analysis and assessment activities “supported by research” . ཛྷ ཛྷ It clarifies the relations between ASN and IRSN, indicating that ASN “guides IRSN’s strategic programming concerning this technical support” and that the ASN Chairman is a member of the Board of the Institute. ཛྷ ཛྷ Finally, it also makes provision for the principle of the publication of IRSN opinions.