This Directive is transposed into French law. It should however be noted that European legislation does not yet enshrine in law the institutional independence of the safety regulators. 2.3 THE EUROPEAN EURATOM DIRECTIVE ON THE MANAGEMENT OF SPENT FUEL AND RADIOACTIVE WASTE On 19 July 2011, the Council of the EU adopted a Directive establishing a community framework for the responsible and safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste (Directive 2011/70/Euratom). The adoption of this Directive contributes to reinforcing nuclear safety within the EU, by making the Member States more accountable for the management of their spent fuels and their radioactive waste. 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 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 Substances 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 – the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group – was created in 2008 and brings together experts delegated by the Member States of the European Union, 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, which began in 2017, concerned the management of nuclear reactor ageing and, with regard to France, ended with the publication of the closing report in 2021. Work on the second thematic peer review concerning the protection of nuclear facilities against fire risks continued in 2023, with submission by the Member States of their national selfassessment reports. The France report, covering 11 installations representative of all the French installations, is available on asn.fr, in both French and English. It will be analysed by international experts in 2024, in the same way as the national reports by other Member States will be analysed by French experts. 2.6 THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY URGENT RADIOLOGICAL INFORMATION EXCHANGE SYSTEM (ECURIE) ECURIE, the European Community Urgent Radiological Information Exchange system, 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. This system was put into place by a Decision of the EU Council of 14 December 1987, notably in the wake of the Chernobyl NPP accident (Ukraine) in 1986. This Decision was ratified by all the EU Member States and a certain number of third-party countries, such as Switzerland and Turkey. Within this context, ASN takes part in the “ECUREX” exercises organised by the European Commission. In 2023, ASN took part in two exercises of this type. 2.7 THE WESTERN EUROPEAN NUCLEAR REGULATORS’ ASSOCIATION (WENRA) The Western European Nuclear Regulators’ Association (WENRA) was created in 1999 at the initiative of ASN and its current members are the 19 heads of the safety regulators of the European countries with experience in electricity generating reactors. It is open to 13 other countries with associate member or observer status. WENRA was chaired from 2019 to November 2023 by the ASN Director General, Olivier Gupta. 194 ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2023 • 06 • International relations
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