To be able to handle this workload, ASN has received authorisation to increase its workforce by 12 staff for 2024, and is also relying on internal redeployments that will be made possible by the end of construction of the Flamanville EPR. Further increases in staffing and budget will nonetheless still be needed in the coming years. In the medical nuclear sector, the persistence of events – with seven events rated level 2 on the ASN-SFRO scale in 2023 – underlines the fact that the challenges remain high and justifies maintaining ASN’s level of oversight. The development of innovative high-stakes medical techniques, for nuclear medicine, or flash radiotherapy, is extensively mobilising the ASN teams in contact with the departments sponsoring the projects. PROMOTING AND DEVELOPING ASN’S SAFETY CULTURE The competence of the ASN personnel, as well as the rigour and collective nature of its decision-making process, are key factors in enabling ASN to correctly carry out its duties and are the focus of permanent attention. However, the pertinence of oversight is also heavily dependent on the “safety culture”. In 2023, ASN started work to identify which practices, which working and organisational methods and which attitudes enable ASN to effectively monitor nuclear safety and radiation protection, and then subsequently enhance and develop them. This work, entrusted to a researcher, consists in identifying the formal frameworks governing oversight actions and the managerial communications guiding these actions and then in observing the practices actually implemented, in order to determine the fundamental principles which encourage or impede the correct exercise of oversight aimed at protecting people and the environment. The interim results highlight a number of key aspects of ASN’s internal culture, which promote correct prioritisation and appropriate handling of high-stakes nuclear safety and radiation protection subjects: the importance of the collective, the benefits of comparing well-argumented opinions, respect for the responsibilities and scope of the duties of each party, intellectual curiosity, listening to different points of view, the sense of public service and rigour. The robustness of the examination process and the pertinence of oversight and decisions owe more to these practices and attitudes than to organisational methods. This culture thus constitutes a solid foundation for meeting the current challenges and it must be promoted and developed. PREPARING FOR A POSSIBLE GRAND AUTHORITY The Government has decided to change how the governance of nuclear safety and radiation protection is organised, by merging ASN and most of the IRSN in a new authority, which would then have its own expert assessment capability, as well as the research roles that underpin it. The two organisational options, with or without integrated technical support, are possible and have proven themselves. It is now up to Parliament to make a decision regarding the corresponding Bill. The responsibility of the teams at ASN and IRSN is to perform their duties within the specified framework, both before and after the date on which the new group is created, if such is the decision. They have therefore started working together to define the possible functioning and organisation of the future authority, in which the personnel will become involved as and when the general frameworks are defined. This work is being carried out with the common goal of ensuring that the new group works, that the personnel find their place in it and that the future authority makes the most of the potential created by the merger, with a more efficient and more attractive organisation preserving the values of excellence and transparency of the two existing entities. In addition, a specific social dialogue body bringing together the management and trades union organisations of ASN and IRSN is holding monthly meetings. To make time for the preparation and then implementation of the oversight organisation reforms, if passed, while preserving the resources assigned to operational duties, ASN has postponed those actions which can be put off and which do not affect its core duties. Whatever the regulatory organisation finally chosen, the personnel at ASN at IRSN will continue to work together, in pursuit of the same goal of protecting people and the environment. I know that I will be able to count on their commitment to continuing the mission our fellow citizens expect of them. n * 10 ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2023 Editorial by the Director General
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