ASN Report 2018

The Act also makes provision for interim measures to safeguard security and public health and safety or protect the environment. ASN can therefore: ∙ ∙ provisionally suspend operation of a BNI, immediately notifying the ministers responsible for nuclear safety, in the event of any serious and imminent risk; ∙ ∙ at all times require assessments and implementation of the necessary measures in the event of a threat to the abovementioned interests; ∙ ∙ take decisions to temporarily or definitively revoke the administrative title (authorisation and soon registration) issued to the party responsible for the nuclear activity, after having informed the party concerned that it is entitled to submit observations within a given time, in order to comply with the exchange of views procedure. The texts also make provision for criminal infringements. This will for example be non-compliance with the provisions concerning the protection of workers exposed to ionising radiation, non-compliance with formal notice served by ASN, performance of a nuclear activity without the required administrative authorisation, non-compliance with the provisions of ASN resolutions or decisions, or irregular management of radioactive waste. Any infringements observed are written up in reports by the nuclear safety and radiation protection inspectors and transmitted to the Public Prosecutor’s Office that decides on what subsequent action, if any, is to be taken. The Environment Code and its implementing decrees make provision for criminal penalties with regard to the infringement or offence: a fine or even a term of imprisonment (up to €150,000 and three years in prison), depending on the nature of the infringement. For legal persons found to be criminally liable, the amount of the fine can reach €10M, depending on the infringement in question and the actual prejudice to the interests mentioned in Article L. 593-1. The Public Health Code makes provision for criminal penalties in Articles L. 1337‑5 to L. 1337-9: these consist of a fine of from €3,750 to €15,000 and a term of imprisonment of six months to one year, depending on the gravity of the infringement, with additional penalties being possible for legal persons. Class five infringements (fine), in the field of nuclear safety, are stipulated by Decree 2007-1557 of 2 November 2007 relative to BNIs and to the nuclear oversight of the transport of radioactive substances, for the infringements detailed in its Article 56, as well as in the field of radiation protection, by Decree 2018-434 of 4 June 2018 containing various nuclear provisions (Art. R. 1337-14-2 to 5 of the Public Health Code), more particularly with regard to non-compliance with significant event notification requirements and to the administrative system (transmission of the title application file, compliance with general requirements, information concerning a change of radiation protection advisor). In the field of pressure equipment, pursuant to the provisions of Chapter VII of Title V of Book V of the Environment Code, which apply to high-risk products and equipment, including pressure equipment, ASN – which is in charge of monitoring these items in BNIs – has powers of enforcement and sanction against licensees. These provisions in particular enable it to order the payment of a fine, plus an additional daily payment applicable until such time as compliance with the formal notice is effective. This Chapter also includes provisions applicable to the manufacturers, importers and distributors of such equipment, aiming to ban the marketing, commissioning or continued operation of an equipment item and to serve the licensee with formal notice to take all steps necessary to ensure conformity with the legislative and regulatory provisions applicable to its activity. In the performance of their duties in NPPs, the ASN labour inspectors have at their disposal all the inspection, decision-making and enforcement resources of ordinary law inspectors (pursuant to Article R. 8111-11 of the Labour Code). Observation, formal notice, administrative sanction, report, injunction (to obtain immediate cessation of the risks) or even stoppage of the works, offer the ASN labour inspectors a broad range of incentive and constraining measures. 5.3  ̶  2018 results concerning enforcement and sanctions As a result of infringements observed, the ASN inspectors (nuclear safety inspectors, for BNIs, the transport of radioactive substances or nuclear pressure equipment, labour inspectors and radiation protection inspectors) transmitted twelve infringement reports to the public prosecutor’s offices, two of which concerned labour inspections in the NPPs. ASN served formal notice to BNI licensees on five occasions. With regard to labour inspection, an administrative fine was imposed by the Normandy Regional Directorate for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs, Labour and Employment (Direccte). Table 10 shows the number of reports issued by the ASN inspectors since 2013. Number of infringement reports transmitted by the ASN inspectors between 2013 and 2018 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Report excluding labour inspection in the nuclear power plants 26 15 14 7 13* 14 Labour inspection report in the nuclear power plants 10 9 3 1 5 2 * The 2017 Report was completed subsequent to the publication of the ASN Report on the State of Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection in France in 2017 . Table 10 154  ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2018 03 – REGULATION OF NUCLEAR ACTIVITIES AND EXPOSURE TO IONISING RADIATION