ASN Report 2017

90 ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2017 Chapter 03  - Regulations TECV Act Act 2015-992 of 17th August 2015 on Energy Transition for Green Growth (TECV) comprises a title devoted to nuclear matters (Title VI - “Reinforcing nuclear safety and information of the public”) and provisions in Title VIII concerning the organisation of the regulation of nuclear safety and radiation protection. The provisions to be considered concern: Enhanced transparency and information of citizens Reinforcing and expanding the roles of the Local Information Committees (CLI) Provision is thus made for the following (Articles L. 125-17 to L. 125-26 of the Environment Code): ཛྷ ཛྷ the organisation of an annual public meeting by the CLI, open to all; ཛྷ ཛྷ the possibility for the CLI to address any subject within its field of competence (monitoring, information and consultation concerning nuclear safety, radiation protection and the impact of nuclear activities on individuals and the environment); ཛྷ ཛྷ the possibility for the CLI Chairman to ask the licensee (who cannot refuse) to organise visits to the nuclear facilities; ཛྷ ཛྷ the possibility for the CLI Chairman to ask the licensee (who cannot refuse, subject to an assessment of “restoration of normal conditions of safety”) to organise visits to the facilities after a “cooling off” period following an incident rated level 1 or higher on the INES scale; ཛྷ ཛྷ the mandatory consultation of the CLI for any changes to the Off-site Emergency Plans (PPI); ཛྷ ཛྷ the mandatory consultation of the CLI concerning information of the persons living within the perimeter of a PPI; ཛྷ ཛྷ in the case of sites located in a département on one of the country’s borders, inclusion of members of neighbouring states in the composition of the CLI. Reinforcement of certain information procedures ཛྷ ཛྷ with the principle of regular information, at the expense of the licensee, of persons living within the perimeter of a PPI (concerning the nature of the accident risks and the envisaged consequences, the safety measures and the steps to be taken in application of this plan) (Article L. 125-16-1 of the Environment Code); ཛྷ ཛྷ with the holding of a public inquiry on the measures proposed by the licensee during the periodic safety review of the NPP reactors after their 35th year of operation (Article L. 593-19 of the Environment Code). Confirmation of the BNI System Management of subcontracting ཛྷ ཛྷ New Article L. 593-6-1 of the Environment Code strengthens the rule preventing the licensee from delegating the surveillance of outside contractors performing an activity that is important for the protection of the interests mentioned in Article L. 593-1 of the Environment Code. This ban which is included in the BNI Order of 7th February 2012 setting out the general rules for BNIs now carries legislative weight. ཛྷ ཛྷ This same Article makes it possible for a Decree by the Council of State to circumscribe or limit the use of contracting or subcontracting for the performance of certain activities important for the protection of interests (see box “Fundamentals” Regulatory management of subcontracting, point 3.1.3). Evolution in the BNI authorisation system ཛྷ ཛྷ Articles L. 593-14 and L. 593-15 of the Environment Code use the same terminology as the system of Installations Classified for Protection of the Environment (ICPE). ཛྷ ཛྷ The “substantial” modifications (previously referred to as “significant”) are those modifications requiring a new and complete authorisation procedure with public inquiry (Article L. 593-14 of the Environment Code). ཛྷ ཛྷ The “significant” modifications now correspond to modifications with a more limited impact on the protection of the interests mentioned in Article L. 593-1 of the Environment Code. Article L. 593-15 of the same code states that “significant” modifications are “depending on their importance” subject to authorisation by ASN or notification to it and that these “significant” modifications “may be opened to public consultation” (see point 3.3.5). Renovation of the BNI final shutdown and decommissioning system ཛྷ ཛྷ The principle of immediate dismantling is enshrined in law (Article L. 593-25). ཛྷ ཛྷ The law differentiates between final shutdown and decommissioning of a BNI. ཛྷ ཛྷ The final shutdown of a BNI is the responsibility of the licensee, who must notify the Minister responsible for Nuclear Safety and ASN of the date no later than two years (or less if justified) prior to final shutdown. As of this date, the installation is considered to have final shutdown status and must be decommissioned (Article L. 593-26). ཛྷ ཛྷ Decommissioning (time-frame and procedures) is prescribed (and no longer authorised) by Decree (Article L. 593-28). ཛྷ ཛྷ An installation which has ceased to function for two consecutive years is considered to be finally shut down (Article L. 593-24). Clarification of the organisation of the oversight of nuclear safety and radiation protection by ASN and IRSN The law enshrines the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) in the Environment Code (new Articles L. 592-41 to L. 592-45). It clarifies the organisation of the oversight of nuclear safety and radiation protection between ASN and IRSN. The law gives IRSN “research and expert assessment duties in the field of nuclear security defined in Article L.591-1 of the Environment Code” , therefore including nuclear safety, radiation protection, prevention and combating of malicious acts, and civil protection actions in the event of an accident. The law requires that ASN draw on IRSN expertise in the performance of its regulation of nuclear safety and radiation protection. In order to guarantee that IRSN’s expert assessment capacity matches ASN’s requirements, the law requires that the latter offer guidance for IRSN’s strategic