ASN Report 2018

involved implement emergency response plans allowing the organisation and tools to be defined in advance, enabling them to react efficiently in the event of an actual emergency. The driver may be unable to give the alert, if injured or killed in the accident. In this case, detection of the radioactive nature of the consignment would be the entire responsibility of the emergency response services. The orange-coloured plates and the trefoil symbols on the vehicles thus indicate the presence of dangerous goods: the emergency services are instructed to automatically evacuate an area with a radius of 100 m around the vehicle and to notify the radioactive nature of the load to the office of the Prefect, which will then alert ASN. Management of the accident is coordinated by the Prefect, who oversees the response operations. Until such time as the national experts are in a position to provide him or her with advice, the Prefect relies on the emergency plan adopted to deal with these situations. Once its national emergency centre has been activated, ASN is able to offer the Prefect assistance by providing technical advice on the more specific measures to be taken. In these situations, IRSN assists ASN by assessing the condition of the damaged package and anticipating how the situation could develop. Furthermore, the ASN regional division dispatches a staff member to the Prefect to facilitate liaison with the national emergency centre. At the same time, human and material resources would be sent out to the scene of the accident as rapidly as possible (radioactivity measuring instruments, medical means, package recovery means). The fire service teams specialising in the radioactive risk (the Mobile Radiological Intervention Units – CMIR) would be called on, along with IRSN’s mobile units, or the mobile units of certain nuclear licensees (such as CEA or EDF), which could be requisitioned by the Prefect if necessary, even if the shipment in question does not concern these licensees. As with other types of emergency, communication is an important factor in the event of a transport accident so that the population can be informed of the situation and given instructions on what to do. In order to prepare the public authorities for the eventuality of an accident involving a shipment of radioactive substances, exercises are held to test the entire response organisation that would be put into place. ASN will continue in 2019 to work towards achieving a satisfactory level of preparedness by the public authorities for emergency situations involving a transport operation, in particular by promoting the performance of local emergency exercises and issuing recommendations on the steps to be taken in the event of an accident. Finally, ASN intends in 2019 to update the guide on the performance of risk assessments required for transport installations able to accommodate dangerous goods. The purpose of this guide is to ensure that the risks linked to radioactive substances are correctly assessed, to enable the licensees to define any pertinent measures needed to reduce them, under the supervision of the Prefect. It will also tie in with the assessments of the consequences of an external hazard on a high-risk package, carried out as part of the stress tests performed in the wake of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi NPP (Japan) on 11 March 2011. In order to learn the lessons from this accident, ASN asked the BNI licensees to carry out stress tests to examine the safety of the facilities in the event of a low-probability accident but one which could have major consequences for public health and safety and protection of the environment. As radioactive substances are transported on the public highway, the possibility of an accident of an intensity exceeding the regulation package design criteria cannot be ruled out. For packages carrying the most dangerous contents, the consequences for the above-mentioned interests could be significant. • ASN recommendations in the event of a transport accident The response by the public authorities in the event of a transport accident comprises three phases: ∙ ∙ The emergency services reach the site and initiate “reflex” measures to limit the consequences of the accident and protect the population. The radioactive nature of the substances involved is discovered during this phase. ∙ ∙ The entity coordinating the emergency response confirms that the substances are indeed radioactive, alerts ASN and IRSN and gives more specific instructions to the responders, pending the activation of the national emergency centres. ∙ ∙ Once the ASN and IRSN emergency centres are operational, a more detailed analysis of the situation is performed in order to advise the person in charge of the emergency operations. During the first two phases, the emergency services must manage the situation without the support of the national experts. In 2017, with the assistance of IRSN and the national Nuclear Risk Management Aid commission (MARN), ASN drafted a document to help direct the actions of the emergency services. It contains general information about radioactivity, general recommendations for the emergency services so that their response can take account of the specific nature of radioactive substance transports, plus sheets organised per type of substance, providing more detailed information and advice for the emergency response coordinator during phase 2. Modification of the “TMD Order”: incident and accident management plan The “TMD Order” of 29 May 2009 was modified by an Order of 11 December 2018 more specifically to clarify the contents of the radioactive materials transport incident and accident management plan. This plan must therefore in particular describe: ཛྷ ཛྷ the internal organisation of the company for managing an incident or accident; ཛྷ ཛྷ the incident or accident detection procedures, the criteria for triggering the management plan and the procedures for alerting and informing the emergency services or competent authorities; ཛྷ ཛྷ the technical and human resources envisaged, which could contribute to managing an incident or accident; ཛྷ ཛྷ how the management plan is kept up-to-date, more specifically including emergency training ofthe transport personnel and exercises or simulations. 264  ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2018 09 – TRANSPORT OF RADIOACTIVE SUBSTANCES