This Directive is legally binding and covers all the aspects of spent fuel and radioactive waste management, from production through to long-term disposal. It reiterates the prime responsibility of the producers and the ultimate responsibility of each Member State to ensure the management of the waste produced on its territory, making sure that the necessary measures are taken to guarantee a high level of safety and to protect workers and the general public against the dangers of ionising radiation. It clearly defines the obligations regarding the safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste and requires that each Member State adopt a legal framework for safety issues, making provision for the creation of: ∙ a competent regulatory authority with a status that guarantees its independence from the waste producers; ∙ authorisation procedures involving authorisation applications examined on the basis of the safety cases required from the licensees. The Directive regulates the drafting of national spent fuel and radioactive waste management policies to be implemented by each Member State. More specifically, it requires each Member State to establish a legislative and regulatory framework designed to set up national programmes for the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste. The Directive also contains provisions concerning transparency and participation of the public, the financial resources for management of spent fuel and radioactive waste, training, as well as obligations for self-assessment and regular peer reviews of the national framework and the competent regulatory authority. These aspects constitute major advances in reinforcing the safety and accountability of spent fuel and radioactive waste management in the EU. The Energy Transition for Green Growth Act (TECV Act) of 2015 and the Ordinance of 10 February 2016 ensured that the provisions of the Directive were transposed into French law. 2.4 The European Euratom Directive on Radiation Protection Basic Standards Directive 2013/59/Euratom of 5 December 2013 on Radiation Protection Basic Standards applies to the justification, optimisation 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). The modifications made in 2016 and 2018 to the Defence, Environment, Public Health and Labour Codes, allowed its transposition into French law. 2.5 The European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG) 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. ENSREG helped bring about a political consensus in the drafting of European Directives on nuclear safety and the management of spent fuel and waste. 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 ENSREG are underpinned by three working groups, devoted to installations safety and international cooperation (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, ENSREG organises European thematic peer reviews. The first of these exercises concerned the management of ageing of the nuclear reactors. 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. On this basis, the national action plans drawn up by the countries were submitted in September 2019 and subsequently updated. The national report, the national action plan and the closing report for France are available on asn.fr, in both French and English. The work on the second thematic peer review, chaired by an ASN Commissioner, concerning the protection of nuclear installations against fire hazards, initiated by the Member States in 2020, was completed with the 2022 publication of the terms of reference that frame the peer review and the technical specifications which provide guidelines for countries performing their self-evaluation. In 2022, the Member States thus began the process of drafting their national self-assessment reports, with publication being expected in October 2023. 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) WENRA was created in 1999 at the initiative of ASN and its current members are the 18 heads of the safety regulators of the European countries with experience in electricity generating reactors. It is open to 14 other countries with associate member or observer status. WENRA has been chaired by the ASN Director General, Olivier Gupta since 2019. Considering that the national safety regulators, in the light of their experience and their practical knowledge of the installations, are better placed than the European Commission to set the technical rules applicable to the nuclear installations in Europe, WENRA defined as its primary mission the voluntary harmonisation of the national regulations of its member countries, aiming for the highest level of safety that is reasonably achievable. Within this context, WENRA developed an original methodology which consists in defining “safety reference levels” for each technical topic, based on the most recent standards from IAEA and on the strictest safety approaches adopted in the EU. Subject to peer review, the WENRA members then examine whether these reference levels are indeed included in the regulations of their country, and modify them if not. Work has also been started to compare the actual procedures to implement these reference levels in the nuclear installations. 196 ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2022 • 06 • International relations 06
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