Bilateral meeting with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

On 6^th June 2018, ASN received a delegation of five representatives of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), led by its Executive Director for Operations, Victor McCree.

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Coordinated by Olivier Gupta, Director General of ASN, this meeting provided the opportunity to discuss the latest regulatory changes in the areas of nuclear safety and radiation protection as well as current topical issues in the two countries. The subjects addressed included 1) informing and involving the public in questions of nuclear safety, 2) the reasons that led ASN to ask for the temporary shutdown of the Tricastin nuclear power plant in Autumn 2017, and 3) the respective approaches deployed in the area of nuclear security (which for ASN is limited to the security of radioactive sources, while for the NRC it extends to the protection of nuclear installations against malicious acts).

The discussions confirmed the benefits of sharing experience and good practices in many technical areas, such as inspection, emergency situation management, nuclear security, material and equipment ageing and integrity over time, etc. To this end, ASN and the NRC carry out cross-inspections and visits in France and the United States in fuel cycle facilities and on the theme of the environment. An action plan for 2018-2019 established jointly by ASN and the NRC will allow the progress of the cooperation initiatives associated with these subjects to be monitored.

MM. Gupta and McCree also reviewed the situation of the assignees between the two Authorities.

The next bilateral meeting should be held in March 2019 in the USA, in the margins of the NRC's annual Regulatory Information Conference (RIC).

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