ASN Report 2020

2.4  The Euratom European Directive on Radiation Protection Basic Standards Directive 2013/59/Euratom of 5 December 2013 on Radiation Protection Basic Standards applies to the justification, optim­ isation and limitation of doses, regulatory control, preparedness for emergency situations, training and other related fields (for example the radon risk, Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials and Construction Materials – NORM). Three Decrees, published in June 2018, which in particular modify the regulatory parts of the Defence, Environment, Public Health and Labour Codes, transposed it into French law. 2.5  The European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG) The ENSREG was created in 2008 and brings together experts delegated by the Member States of the EU, with the aim of supporting the European Commission in its legislative initiatives in the field of nuclear safety and radiation protection. The ENSREG helped bring about a political consensus in the drafting of European Directives on nuclear safety and the management of spent fuel and waste. The ENSREG also took part in the process to revise the Nuclear Safety Directive, following on from the assessment and analysis of the Fukushima Daiichi NPP accident. The activities of the ENSREG are underpinned by three working groups, devoted to installations safety and international cooper­ ation (WG1), the safe management of radioactive wastes and spent fuels (WG2) and transparency in the nuclear field (WG3) respectively. ASN contributes to the work done by each of them. In accordance with the Safety Directive of 2014, the ENSREG organises European topical peer reviews. The first of these exercises concerned the management of the ageing of electricity generating nuclear reactors and research reactors with a power of 1 Megawatt (MW) or greater. Each of the participating countries first of all drafted a national report, which was then examined in 2018 by experts appointed by the Member States. This examination led to the drafting of a report on the generic results and a report on the specific results per country. All of these reports were adopted by a plenary session of the ENSREG and published on the ENSREG site at the end of 2018. On this basis, the national action plans from the countries were submitted in September 2019. They are available on the ENSREG website. The national report and the national action plan for France are also available on the ASN website, in both French and English. In 2020, the Member States began their work on the second topical peer review. They first of all drew conclusions from the experience gained during the first exercise and then set up a steering committee headed by a member of the ASN Commission. On the basis of a proposal from the WENRA, they also chose the topic of fire hazard management for this second topical peer review. At the end of 2020, ASN also published the closing report for the French national action plan on the implementation of additional safety measures following the peer review of the European stress tests. 2.6  The European Community Urgent Radiological Information Exchange system (ECURIE) ECURIE is one of the rapid action systems set up by the European Commission, which has an information exchange network for receiving and triggering an alert and thus for rapidly circulating information within the EU in the event of a radioactive emergency or major nuclear accident. This system was put into place in 1987 by a Decision of the Council of the EU of 14 December 1987, notably in the wake of the Chernobyl (Ukraine) accident in 1986. This Decision came into force on 21 March 1988 and was ratified by all the Member States of the EU and a certain number of third-party countries, such as Switzerland and Turkey. 2.7  The Western European Nuclear Regulators’ Association (WENRA) The WENRA was created in 1999 at the initiative of ASN and is an association whose members are the heads of the safety regulators of the European countries with electricity generating reactors. Other European countries, or major non-European countries with power generating reactors, take part in WENRA’s activities as either observers or associate members. The WENRA’s actions are based on experience sharing by safety regulators with a view to developing a common approach and harmonised safety rules for reactors, waste management facilities and research reactors. The WENRA draws on three working groups, each with competence in a field of nuclear safety: ∙ the Reactor Harmonisation Working Group (RHWG); ∙ the Working Group on Radioactive Waste and Decom­ missioning (WGWD); ∙ the Working Group on Research Reactors (WGRR). WENRA publishes a set of reference levels for research reactors During its plenary meeting of November 2020, the Western European Nuclear Regulators’ Association (WENRA) approved a set of safety reference levels applicable to research reactors. Implementing those already approved by WENRA for power reactors and applicable to the field of research reactors, the WENRA working group in charge of these facilities supplemented its approach by drafting particular safety reference levels to address the specificity and diversity of these reactors. 331 safety reference levels are thus now available for the 18 member countries of WENRA, as well as for Russia as an associate member, and for the 12 observer countries. The authorities of the WENRA member countries will be able to begin incorporating these levels into their national regulations, thus contributing to harmonisation of the regulations in this area. Publication of these safety reference levels is a milestone for WENRA, more particularly at the European level, as one of its main objectives is to reinforce harmonisation of regulations between countries, by establishing ambitious safety objectives. This work reiterates the central position of the reference levels defined by WENRA in the hierarchy of documents and reports produced by the association during the course of its activities. 198 ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2020 06 – INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS