ASN describes the procedures for consultation with the licensees and the public for drafting of its statutory resolutions and guides

ASN accords considerable importance to consultation when drafting of its statutory resolutions and its guides.
ASN guide n° 25 describes the procedures whereby the licensees and industrial firms concerned, as well as the general public and associations, contribute to the drafting of ASN statutory resolutions or guides, concerning the basic nuclear installations (BNI).

For a number of years now, together with the Ministries in charge of nuclear safety and radiation protection, ASN has been engaged in overhauling the regulations, more specifically with the aim of:

• updating and, as applicable, reinforcing sometimes outdated requirements, in order to take account of both progress in the field of nuclear security and international recommendations, standards or reference levels;
• promoting best practices already used by licensees and, whenever applicable, giving regulatory weight to the objectives associated, with an approach that is proportionate to the issues;
• obtaining clear and exhaustive texts containing information that was hitherto scattered among several regulatory or individual documents, with the aim of simplification.

Regulatory changes are sometimes accompanied by the drafting of ASN guides, intended to promote knowledge of the regulations or of ASN requirements.
The public, licensees and stakeholders were able to submit their comments and observations on this guide to ASN at a consultation held on the ASN website from 29th February to 30th April 2016. These comments and observations were taken into account in the drafting of the version of the guide published today.
With this new guide, ASN more specifically proposes:

• to improve the involvement of the stakeholders, as of the beginning of the drafting process;
• to reinforce the definition of the initial framework for the production of a draft regulatory text or guide and communicate about the corresponding orientations and objectives, right from the beginning of the process;
• to develop an analysis of the impacts of the draft texts;
• to support and follow up the implementation of the regulatory texts by drafting guides intended for the licensees and industrial firms concerned and by integrating feedback after a few years of application.