ASN expresses three expectations on the occasion of its New Year’s greetings to the press:

The obligation to anticipate, the need to maintain industrial margins & the importance of mobilising the nuclear sector in order to maintain skill levels

On the occasion of the New Year, ASN – through its Chairman Mr. Bernard Doroszczuk – presented its greetings to the press on 29 January, at its Montrouge headquarters.

The ASN Chairman emphasised the fact that in 2018, “nuclear safety and radiation protection were kept at a satisfactory level”.

Mr. Doroszczuk drew the audience’s attention to:

• the difficulties encountered in the recovery and packaging of legacy waste and in decommissioning operations (projects completed behind schedule, postponements, changes in strategy after several years of study).
• the large number of deviations in installation compliance with their baseline safety requirements, even if “the licensees are aware of the need to improve both management of installation ageing and maintenance operations”.
• in the medical field, the persistence of recurring events rated level 2 (dose error or laterality error for example), as well as the fact that insufficient account is taken of the risks linked to fluoroscopy guided interventional practices. “ASN will take initiatives in this area in 2019, together with the professionals concerned”.

He more particularly expressed three expectations for the future:

• greater anticipation from all stakeholders in the nuclear and medical sector. “It is now rare that projects are completed in less than 10 years.”
• maintaining sufficient safety margins in industrial projects, at a time when the desire for optimisation may seek to erode these margins.
• mobilisation of the nuclear sector to maintain skills “built around professional training, in order to achieve the required level of quality and safety”. The difficulties encountered in the construction of new facilities, in particular with regard to conventional industrial operations such as welding, electromechanical work, or even non-destructive testing, have given rise to “doubt concerning the sector’s ability to carry out major works relating to the continued operation of the fleet, decommissioning, or the construction of new reactors”.