ASN Report 2018

4 —  International agreements 3. This Convention sets a certain number of nuclear safety objectives and defines measures for achieving them. France signed it on 20 September 1994 and approved it on 13 September 1995. The Convention on Nuclear Safety entered into force on 24 October 1996 and, as at 15 December 2018, there were 85 contracting parties. ASN acts as the national point of contact for the two Conventions dealing, on the one hand, with nuclear safety (the Convention on Nuclear Safety) and, on the other, with spent fuel and wastes (Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management). ASN is also the Competent Authority for the two Conventions dedicated to the operational management of the possible consequences of accidents (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). 4.1  ̶  The Convention on Nuclear Safety The Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS) is one of the results of international discussions initiated in 1992 in order to contribute to maintaining a high level of nuclear safety worldwide (3) . The objectives of the Convention on Nuclear Safety are to reach and maintain a high level of nuclear safety worldwide; to establish and maintain effective defences in nuclear facilities against potential radiological risks and to prevent accidents which could have radiological consequences and mitigate their consequences should they occur. The areas covered by the Convention have long been part of the French approach to nuclear safety. The Convention makes provision for review meetings by the contracting parties every three years, to develop cooperation and the exchange of experience. In France, ASN acts as the Competent Authority for the Convention on Nuclear Safety. It coordinates all the preparatory phases prior to the review meetings, in close collaboration with the entities concerned. ASN also devotes considerable resources so that it can participate in the review meetings and be present at the various presentations and discussions. The Vienna Declaration on Nuclear Safety was adopted on 9 February 2015 by the contracting parties to the Convention on Nuclear Safety, who met on the occasion of the diplomatic conference tasked with reviewing a proposal to amend the Convention on Nuclear Safety. The 8th review meeting of the contracting parties to the CSN will be held from 23 March to 3 April 2020 at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna. It will be chaired by the Director General of the nuclear safety regulator of the Czech Republic, Ms Dana Drabova. The two Vice-Presidents are Mr Carl- Magnus Larsson of the Australian regulator and Mr Manwoong Kim of the South-Korean regulator, respectively. Several months before the review meeting is held, each contracting party submits a national report describing how it meets the obligations of the Convention. Drafting of the French national report for the 8th review meeting was started in November 2018. The French report will be made public no later than 15 August 2019, in both French and English versions, on the IAEA and ASN websites respectively. 4.2  ̶  The Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management The Joint Convention is the equivalent of the Convention on Nuclear Safety for management of the spent fuel and radioactive waste produced by civil nuclear activities. France signed it on 29 September 1997 and it entered into force on 18 June 2001. As at 31 December 2018, there were 80 contracting parties to this convention. For the 6th review meeting of the Joint Convention, the French national report, the drafting of which had been coordinated by ASN, was submitted to the IAEA at the end of 2017. In accordance with the peer review process stipulated in the Convention, 140 questions and comments were sent to France concerning its 6th national report. Drafting of the answers to these questions was coordinated by ASN, as was the drafting of questions and comments sent by France to the other countries. A total of 238 questions and comments was sent by France to 51 countries. The 6th review meeting of the contracting parties to the Joint Convention was held at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, from 21 May to 1 June 2018. Like the previous exercises and with the support of the ASN departments and divisions, plus the IRSN, France was able to attend all the national presentations and much was learned from them. The French presentation aroused keen interest and helped gain international recognition for the French radioactive waste and spent fuel management and nuclear facilities decommissioning programme. 4.3  ̶  The Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident The Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident came into force on 27 October 1986, six months after the Chernobyl accident and as at 31 December 2018, it has 122 contracting parties. The contracting parties agree to inform the international community as rapidly as possible of any accident leading to uncontrolled release into the environment of radioactive material likely to affect a neighbouring State. For this purpose, the IAEA proposes a tool to the Member States for notification and assistance in the event of a radiological emergency. ASN made an active contribution to the production of this tool, called USIE (Unified System for Information Exchange in Incidents and Emergencies), in use in ASN’s Emergency Centre and tested on the occasion of each exercise. The Interministerial Directive of 30 May 2005 specifies the conditions of application of this text in France and mandates ASN as the competent national authority. It is therefore up to ASN to notify the events to the international institutions without delay, to rapidly provide the pertinent information about the situation, in particular to border countries, to enable them to take the necessary population protection measures and, finally, to provide the ministers concerned with a copy of the notifications and the information transmitted or received. ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2018  193 06 – INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 06