ASN issues a resolution to clarify the content of the “safety analysis report” for basic nuclear installations

The “safety analysis report” is the document that the licensee is required to send to ASN to support an application for authorisation to create, commission or decommission a basic nuclear installation (BNI). To obtain the authorisation to create and then operate a BNI, the licensee is required to provide full substantiation that the technical and organisational measures it intends to take will be able to prevent or adequately mitigate any incident or accident risks inherent in the BNI.

For the licensee, the purpose of the safety analysis report is to demonstrate the safety of the BNI, ASN therefore decided to clarify its content in a statutory resolution. This resolution concerns all BNIs (nuclear power plants, research facilities, fuel cycle installations, radioactive waste disposal facilities, etc.), and sets out a range of requirements, in terms of both drafting and content, for the safety analysis report.

The main provisions of the resolution cover :

• the objectives of the safety analysis report;
• the principles underpinning the drafting and updating of the safety analysis report;
• compliance with the legislative and regulatory requirements;
• the description of the BNI and the risk management processes in place to mitigate the risks it presents;
• the nuclear safety demonstration (control of the risks presented by the installation):

1. -          the approaches adopted by the licensee;
2. -          application of the principle of defence in depth;
3. -          analysis of failures or hazards (earthquake, flooding, fire, etc.) liable to occur, with an assessment of their consequences;

• the dimensioning study for the on-site emergency plan;
• particular operations such as construction of the BNI, management of radioactive sources and on-site transport operations;
• requirements specific to certain BNIs, in particular those which for example comprise one or more nuclear reactors.

This ASN resolution, which was the subject of a public consultation from 15 September to 17 October 2014 on the ASN website, more specifically clarifies the general provisions of the amended order of 7 February 2012, setting the general rules applicable to BNIs and the reference levels established by the Western European Nuclear Regulators Association (WENRA).

The safety analysis report is assessed by ASN during the various stages in the life of a BNI, in particular:

• during the creation authorisation, commissioning authorisation, final shutdown and decommissioning authorisation or transition to monitoring phase procedures, in order to assess the nuclear safety of the BNI and prepare the authorisation and the associated prescriptions;
• during the review of BNI modifications;
• during BNI inspections.