ASN Report 2018

3.2  ̶  The OECD’s Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) The NEA, created in 1958, now comprises 33 members from Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region, with the inclusion of Argentina and Romania in 2017. Its main role is to assist the member countries in maintaining and developing the scientific, technological and legal bases essential for safe, environmentally-friendly and economic utilisation of nuclear energy. Within the NEA, ASN is more particularly involved in the work of the Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA). It also takes part in the Committee on Radiological Protection and Public Health (CRPPH), the Radioactive Waste Management Committee (RWMC), the new Committee on Decommissioning of Nuclear installations and Legacy Management (CDLM) as well as several working groups of the Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI). The various NEA committees oversee working groups of experts. Within the CNRA, ASN contributes to the working groups on inspection practices, acquired operating experience, the regulation of new reactors and public communication by safety regulators. More information about NEA/CNRA activities can be found on the oecd-nra.org website. 3.3  ̶  The Multinational Reactor Design Evaluation Program (MDEP) The MDEP was created in 2006 and is an international cooperation initiative aimed at drawing up common approaches in order to take advantage of the resources and knowledge of national safety regulators in charge of regulatory assessment of new reactor designs. The key goal of this programme is to contribute to the harmonisation and implementation of safety standards. At the request of the regulatory bodies which are members of the MDEP, the NEA is responsible for the technical secretariat of this programme. An ASN staff member is seconded to NEA to help with this task. • Members of the programme With the inclusion of Argentina in 2017, the MDEP now comprises 16 national safety regulators: AERB (India), ARN (Argentina), ASN (France), CCSN (Canada), FANR (United Arab Emirates), HAEA (Hungary), NNR (South Africa), NNSA (China), NRA (Japan), NRC (United States), NSSC (South Korea), ONR (United Kingdom), RTN (Russian Federation), SSM (Sweden), STÜK (Finland), NDK (Turkey). • Organisation The broad outlines of the work done within the MDEP are defined by a strategy committee and implemented by a technical steering committee, which has been chaired by an ASN deputy Director General since June 2015. The work is carried out by working groups for the main nuclear reactor designs currently under construction around the world: the Framatome EPR, the AP-1000 from the American Westinghouse, the APR-1400 from the Korean Kepco, the Russian VVER and the Chinese HPR-1000 (Hualong). A group concerning advanced boiling water reactors was set up in 2018, after the dissolution of the ABW Working Group in the NEA Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA). Initially, several MDEP Working Groups also dealt with cross cutting issues among the various designs. Most of these groups have in recent years been transferred to the CNRA. The last transfer of this type concerned the Working Group on mechanical codes and standards. At present, the only transverse MDEP Working Group concerns the inspection of nuclear component suppliers, or the Vendor Inspection Cooperation Working Group (VICWG). Each of the groups dedicated to a particular design brings together the safety regulators of the countries building or envisaging the construction of reactors of this type. The EPR group in which ASN participates also includes authorities from the United Kingdom, Finland, China, India and Sweden. • Activities in 2018 Within the EPR group, technical exchanges concerned the deviations found on the welds of the main secondary systems of the Flamanville 3 reactor currently under construction. In addition, work continued on the pooling of tests performed prior to start-up of the Taishan 1 reactor. A workshop on the management of the supply chain in the nuclear field was organised jointly with the NEA in November 2018. The event attracted about a hundred participants, half of whom came from the nuclear industry (licensees, suppliers) and half from the safety regulatory and certification and inspection organisations. 3.4  ̶  The International Nuclear Regulators’ Association (INRA) The International Nuclear Regulators’ Association (INRA) comprises the regulatory bodies from Germany, Canada, South Korea, Spain, the United States, France, Japan, the United Kingdom and Sweden. This association is a forum for regular and informal discussions concerning topical matters in these various countries and the positions adopted on common international issues. It meets twice a year in the country holding the presidency, with each country acting as president for one year in turn (France in 2015, Spain in 2016, United States in 2017 and South Korea in 2018). In 2018, in addition to discussions on the state of nuclear safety, the work of this association more particularly monitored the revision of the INES scale manual, together with the services of the IAEA. 3.5  ̶  The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) was created in 1955. It compiles all scientific data on radiation sources and the risks this radiation represents for the environment and for health. This activity is supervised by the annual meeting of the national representations of the Member States, comprising international experts. 3.6  ̶  The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) The ICRP, a non-governmental organisation, was created in 1928 with the aim of assessing the state of knowledge about the effects of radiation, in order to ensure that it does not call current protection rules into question. The ICRP bases its findings on the results of the research work carried out around the world and examines the work of other international organisations, notably that of UNSCEAR. It issues general recommendations on the protection rules to be adopted and on the exposure levels to be complied with. 192  ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2018 06 – INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS