3 // The multilateral framework for ASN’s international relations At the multilateral level, cooperation takes place notably within the framework of the IAEA, a United Nations agency founded in 1957, and the NEA, created in 1958. These two agencies are the two most important intergovernmental organisations in the field of nuclear safety and radiation protection. 3.1 The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) The IAEA is a United Nations organisation based in Vienna and comprises 173 Member States. The IAEA’s activities are focused on two main areas: one of them concerns the control of nuclear materials and non-proliferation and the other concerns all activities related to the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. In this latter field, two IAEA departments are tasked with developing and promoting nuclear energy on the one hand, and the safety and security of nuclear facilities and activities, on the other. Following on from the action plan approved by the IAEA Board of Governors in September 2011 and with the aim of reinforcing safety worldwide by learning the lessons from the Fukushima Daiichi NPP accident, the IAEA is in particular focusing its work on the following fields: safety standards and peer review missions. Safety Standards The IAEA Safety Standards describe the safety principles and practices that the vast majority of Member States uses as the basis for their national regulations. This activity is supervised by the IAEA’s Commission on Safety Standards (CSS), set up in 1996. The CSS comprises 24 highest level representatives from the safety regulators, appointed for a term of 4 years. It coordinates the work of five committees tasked with drafting documents in their respective fields: NUSSC (Nuclear Safety Standards Committee) for the safety of reactors, RASSC (Radiation Safety Standards Committee) for radiation protection, TRANSSC (Transport Safety Standards Committee) for the safety of radioactive substances transport, WASSC (Waste Safety Standards Committee) for the safe management of radioactive waste and EPReSC (Emergency Preparedness and Response Standards Committee) for preparedness and coordination in a radiological emergency situation. France, represented by ASN, is present on each of these committees, which meet twice every year. Representatives of the various French organisations concerned also take part in the technical groups which draft these documents. In 2021, the IAEA made significant efforts to shorten the time taken to publish its standards. Prioritisation of the safety standards to be revised or produced over the period 2022-2027 is currently ongoing. Work is also being done to identify any adaptations to the body of standards required, in order to take account of the issues related to SMRs. Peer review missions The IAEA proposes peer review missions in the field of safety to the Member States. These services consist of expert missions organised by the IAEA in countries which ask for them. Each team of auditors consists of experts from other Member States and from the IAEA. These audits are produced on the basis of the IAEA’s baseline safety standards. Several types of audit are proposed, notably the Integrated Regulatory Review Service (IRRS) missions devoted to the national regulatory framework for nuclear safety and the working of the safety regulator, the Operational Safety Review Team (Osart) missions, devoted to the safety of NPPs in operation and, finally, the ARTEMIS missions, devoted to national radioactive waste and spent fuel management programmes. The audit results are written up in a report transmitted to the requesting country and may comprise various levels of recommendations and also recognise good practices. It is up to the requesting country to take account of the recommendations issued by the experts. A follow-up mission, the purpose of which is to verify the progress made in taking account of the recommendations, is held between 18 months and 4 years after the initial mission, depending on the type of audit. ASN’s situation regarding these missions is presented below. IRRS missions The IRRS missions are devoted to analysing all aspects of the framework governing nuclear safety and the activity of a safety regulator. ASN is in favour of holding these peer reviews on a regular basis, and incorporates their results into its continuous improvement approach. It should be noted that, pursuant to the provisions of the 2009/71/Euratom Directive amended in 2014, the Member States of the EU are already subject to periodic and mandatory peer reviews of their general nuclear safety and radiation protection oversight organisation. Owing to the global health situation, very few IRRS missions could be held in 2020 and those in which ASN should have taken part were postponed. ASN also informed the IAEA of its desire to host an IRRS mission in France concerning the full range of its activities in the first half of 2024. Osart missions In France, the performance of Osart missions devoted to the safety of NPP operation, is requested from the IAEA by ASN, in coordination with the licensee of the NPPs, EDF. Three Osart missions were held in France in 2021, in the Paluel, Belleville-sur-Loire and Flamanville (follows-up mission) NPPs respectively. The 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 often countries of the French-speaking community. In addition and still under the supervision of the IAEA, ASN is also involved in the Regulatory Cooperation Forum (RCF). This forum, created in 2010, aims to establish contacts between the safety regulators of countries adopting nuclear energy for the first time and the safety regulators of the leading nuclear countries, in order to identify their needs and coordinate the support to be provided, while ensuring that the fundamental principles of nuclear safety are met (independence of the regulator, appropriate legal and regulatory framework, and so on). In 2021, in addition to a detailed review of the situation of the safety authorities in Bangladesh, Belarus, Ghana, Morocco and Poland, the RCF reinforced its cooperation with the EU (EINS) and with “regional” safety regulator forums. Harmonisation of communication tools ASN 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 International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) and its updates. In this respect it was closely involved in the work to revise the INES scale manual recently published by IAEA, the previous version of which was about ten years old. In addition to the updates to take account of advances in scientific knowledge, this revision also includes guidelines for communication in how to use the scale as well on how to apply it in a crisis. 196 ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2021 06 – INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
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