ASN Report 2018

Along the same lines, the IRRS (Integrated Regulatory Review Service) and OSART (Operational Safety Review team) missions are carried out using the IAEA safety standards as their point of reference. • The IRRS missions The IRRS missions are devoted to analysing all aspects of the framework governing nuclear safety and the corresponding activities of a regulatory Authority. ASN is in favour of holding these peer reviews on a regular basis, with widespread dissemination of their results. It is worth noting that through the provisions of the Directive 2009/71/Euratom on the safety of nuclear facilities, revised in 2014, the Member States of the European Union are already subject to periodic and mandatory peer reviews of their general nuclear safety and radiation protection oversight arrangements. In 2018, ASN took part in several IRRS missions, in Luxembourg, Spain, Belgium and Australia respectively. • The OSART missions The OSART missions are carried out by a team of experts from third party country licensees who, for two to three weeks, examine the safety organisation of the nuclear power plants in operation. The actual implementation of the recommendations and suggestions put forward by the team of experts is verified during a follow-up mission, 18 months after the visit by the experts. Owing to the postponement in the start-up of the Flamanville EPR reactor, the OSART mission which was to take place in 2018 before commissioning of the reactor, was pushed back to 2019. • Regional training and assistance missions ASN responds to requests from the IAEA secretariat, in particular to take part in regional radiation protection training and in assistance missions. The beneficiaries are generally countries of the French-speaking community. In 2018, ASN representatives therefore went to Burkina Faso, Morocco and Haiti. In addition and still under the supervision of IAEA, ASN also participated in the RCF (Regulatory Cooperation Forum). This forum, created in 2010, aims to bring those safety regulators in countries adopting nuclear energy for the first time into contact with the safety regulators of the major nuclear countries, so that their needs can be identified and the required support can be coordinated, while ensuring that the fundamental nuclear safety objectives can be met (independence of the regulator, appropriate legal and regulatory framework, etc.). In 2018, in addition to a close examination of the situation of the regulatory authorities in Belarus, Jordan, Poland and Vietnam, the RCF reinforced its cooperation with the European Union (INSC) and with “regional” forums such as ANNuR (Arab Network of Nuclear Regulators), FNRBA (Forum of Nuclear Regulatory Bodies in Africa) and ANSN (Asian Nuclear Safety Network). Finally, the RCF examined the request from Bangladesh for active assistance. • Harmonisation of communication tools ASN is heavily involved in the ongoing work to revise the manual for INES (the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale), which was updated for the last time about ten years ago. The IAEA aims to publish this revision in 2019. ASN also takes part in the INES consultative committee, a body comprising experts in the evaluation of the significance of radiation protection and nuclear safety events, tasked with advising the IAEA and the INES national representatives of the member countries on the use of the INES scale and its updates. With regard to the rating of radiation protection events involving patients, which will not be included in the revision of the manual, ASN decided to apply the methodology developed at the IAEA. This is currently being assessed, together with the health professionals, in order to ensure that it is fully applicable. Generally speaking, ASN is closely involved in the various actions carried out by the IAEA, providing significant support for certain initiatives, notably those which were developed following the Fukushima Daiichi accident. • Management of nuclear and radiological emergency situations ASN takes part in IAEA’s work to improve notification and information exchanges in radiological emergency situations. On this subject, ASN takes part in the exercises prepared and regularly organised by the IAEA to test the operational provisions of the Convention on the Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident and the Convention on Assistance in the case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency, called “convention exercises” or “ConvEx exercises”. These exercises, which are more specifically designed to enable all the participants – both Member States and the IAEA – to acquire practical experience and understand the procedures involved in preparing and running these interventions, are of three types: ∙ ∙ the ConvEx-1 exercises, more specifically designed to test the emergency lines of communication established with the points of contact in the Member States; ∙ ∙ the ConvEx-2 exercises, designed to test particular aspects of the international framework for the preparation and performance of emergency interventions and the assessment and prognosis provisions and tools for emergency situations; ∙ ∙ the ConvEx-3 exercises, aimed at assessing the emergency intervention provisions and the resources in place to deal with a severe emergency for several days. In 2018, ASN took part in one ConvEx-2 type exercise. ASN is also helping to define international assistance strategy, requirements and resources and to develop the Response and Assistance Network (RANET). In addition to the four traditional committees which draft its safety standards, IAEA created a committee in 2015 called EPReSC (Emergency Preparedness and Response Standards Committee), to deal with emergency situations. The standards in this field had up to now been monitored by the other existing committees. The document at the top of the standards hierarchy in this field is General Safety Requirement (GSR) Part 7, published in November 2015. ASN represented France at the two meetings of this committee held in 2018. In 2018, ASN also organised a meeting with all the national emergency management stakeholders in France, to present the concept of the emergency situation protection strategy developed by IAEA. ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2018  191 06 – INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 06