The Prime Minister asks ASN for an audit of French nuclear facilities

On 15 March 2011, French Prime Minister, François Fillon, announced to the National Assembly that an audit was to be performed on the country's nuclear facilities.

Following his announcement, Mr Fillon wrote a letter to ASN, dated 23 March 2011, asking the Authority, in accordance with the Nuclear Security and Transparency Act, to conduct a safety audit at every nuclear facility in France, in light of current events at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant. The audit, to be conducted in a spirit of “openness and transparency”, will focus on risks relating to flooding, earthquakes, loss of power and loss of cooling water, as well as operational management of emergency situations. Its purpose is to determine whether any improvements are needed, based on lessons learned from the Fukushima accident. The first conclusions are expected by the end of 2011.