During its visit to China, an ASN delegation, led by its Chairman Bernard DOROSZCZUK, met a delegation from the Chinese Atomic Energy Agency (CAEA1) led by its Chairman, Vice-minister ZHANG Kejian, in Beijing on 13 November.
On 14 and 15 November 2023, the Western European Nuclear Regulators’ Association (WENRA) held its biannual plenary meeting at ASN headquarters in Montrouge.
ASN publishes the lessons learned from the review conducted jointly with its Finnish (STUK) and Czech (SUJB) counterparts regarding the safety options of the NUWARD SMR reactor project, developed by a subsidiary of EDF.
In 2022 and in the first half of 2023, ASN continued with its monitoring of the construction of the Flamanville EPR reactor. It was particularly vigilant with regard to the treatment of the deviations detected on the main primary and secondary system welds and to the correct operation of the filtration function of the safety injection system (SIS). It continued to examine the installation start-up tests and the correct operation of the primary system protection valves.
On 26 July 2022, the SCINTIGARD radiology centre in Nîmes notified ASN of an incident concerning the contamination of a radiographer during the preparation of a scintigraphy examination, and dissemination of the contamination in the staff break room of the centre.
On the 15th June 2023, WENRA issued a position paper on the safety situation of Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant with regard to the Kakhovka dam rupture. This position is based on the work conducted by experts from WENRA, technical support organisations, including IRSN, and the European Commission.
The commissioning and operation of the Flamanville EPR reactor pressure vessel were authorised by an ASN resolution in 2018. This resolution took into account a manufacturing anomaly in the lower dome and the vessel closure head and limited the use of the vessel closure head to 31 December 2024.
On May 25, ASN presented its Report on the State of Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection in France in 2022 to the parliamentarians of the Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technical Choices (OPECST). ASN used this opportunity to ask that the reflections conducted in preparation for the next multi-year energy Plan should adopt a systemic approach to the nuclear sector.
On 3 February 2023, ASN was notified by the Cattenom nuclear power plant licensee of a significant radiation protection event concerning the exceeding of an annual individual dose limit by an employee of an EDF contractor.
On 6 March 2023, EDF sent ASN an update of its significant safety event notification concerning the presence of stress corrosion cracks on several of its reactors. This update concerns reactor 3 of the Cattenom NPP and the reactors of the Civaux, Chooz B and Penly NPPs.
In May 2022, Japan Steel Works (JSW) published reports of irregularities in its Muroran plant in Japan, which mainly concerned turbines for thermal power stations. The irregularities consisted more specifically in the modification of chemical analysis results, residual stress measurements and hardness measurements.
The ASN and NRC Commissions met at NRC Headquarters in Rockville (MD, USA) on 9 January 2023 to discuss regulatory priorities and topics of interest...
On 31 October 2022, ASN was informed by Aperam Stainless France of a significant radiation protection event which had occurred on 28 October 2022 on its Gueugnon site , concerning the accidental exposure of a worker to ionising radiation.
