News releases

All the news about nuclear safety and radiation protection

470 news

Published on 30/11/2012 at 17:35

Meeting between Pierre-Franck Chevet & Yukiya Amano

Pierre-Franck Chevet, President of the Autorité de sûreté nucléaire (ASN), received Yukiya Amano, Director General of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) in the ASN Headquarters on 20 November, on the occasion of his two-day visit to Paris (19-20 November).

Published on 19/11/2012 at 18:57

First session of the ASN commission in its new configuration

On Monday 12 November 2012, Pierre-Franck Chevet, who is succeeding André-Claude Lacoste as ASN Chairman, and Margot Tirmarche, who is succeeding Marie-Pierre Comets as an ASN Commissioner, took part in an extraordinary session of the Commission expanded to include these two members.

Published on 14/11/2012 at 10:26

ASN Appointments

Pierre-Franck Chevet is appointed Chairman of ASN by decree of the President of the Republic dated 9 November 2012, for a period of 6 years. He succeeds André-Claude Lacoste who was appointed Chairman of ASN in 2006 and whose mandate expires on 12 November 2012. Margot Tirmarche is appointed ASN Commissioner by decree of the President of the Republic dated 9 November 2012, as the member designated by the President of the National Assembly, for a period of 6 years. She succeeds Marie-Pierre Comets, appointed ASN Commissioner in 2006 and whose mandate expires on 12 November 2012.

Published on 08/10/2012 at 17:26

EPR Reactor: Information Letter n°13

Since the end of 2011, ASN has conducted several inspections [link to inspection follow-up letters posted on line on asn.fr] that continue its monitoring of the construction of the Flamanville 3 EPR reactor and various other manufacturing operations for this reactor. The notable points observed over these last few months are detailed below.

Published on 05/10/2012 at 11:32

European Stress Tests

ASN notes the communication of the European Commission on Thursday October 4, 2012 on “stress tests” on nuclear power plants in Europe conducted after the Fukushima disaster claims to be based on the results published in the stress tests final report adopted on April 26, 2012. ASN regrets the working methodology used by the Commission for drawing its conclusions. These conclusions ignore some important recommendations of the stress-tests final report.

Published on 28/09/2012 at 17:31

ENSREG experts visit three French nuclear power plants

From 10 to 13 September 2012, the Chooz, Cattenom and Fessenheim nuclear power plants were visited by European experts under an ENSREG mandate. In France, ASN was responsible for supervising the organisation of these visits, which are part of the action plan adopted by ENSREG after the stress tests required by a decision of the European Council in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi accident of March 2011. The purpose of these follow-up visits was to examine the nationwide implementation of the measures identified after the European stress tests, which covered all NPPs in the Member States.

Published on 06/09/2012 at 09:10

Information on Fessenheim NPP event

On 5th September 2012, the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) was notified by EDF of an incident related to a gas release which occurred at around 15:00 in nuclear auxiliary buildings of the Fessenheim NPP.

Published on 31/08/2012 at 10:41

ASN's national action plan for management of the radon risk

ASN published the 2011-2015 national action plan for management of the radon risk. This document is the result of collaboration between ASN, the ministries responsible for health, housing and labour and the partner organisations (Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety - IRSN, French Health Monitoring Institute - InVS, Building Industry Scientific and Technical Centre - CSTB, Regional Council of the Limousin département). This second action plan follows on from the 2005-2008 plan, the results of which were published by ASN in 2009.

Published on 20/08/2012 at 09:19

ASN reports on controls imposed on nuclear reactors’ vessels

In France, ASN controls manufactoring and in service inspection of key operating pressure equipments of nuclear reactors, including the reactor pressure vessel. A specific monitoring of these equipments’ construction has been applied since 1974. For all components of French reactors’ vessels, a number of controls aiming at detecting defects in forged pieces were carried out during production.

Published on 07/08/2012 at 09:37

Fuel storage pool siphon-breakers

On 18 January 2012, EDF notified ASN of the absence of a “siphon breaker” orifice on the fuel storage pool cooling pipes for reactors 2 and 3 at the Cattenom NPP. This significant safety event (ESS), detected during the course of an internal inspection, was rated level 2 on the INES scale, which comprises 8 levels from 0 to 7 (see press release of 6 February 2012).

Published on 17/07/2012 at 10:25

CENTRACO incineration furnace

The CENTRACO facility, operated by SOCODEI on the Marcoule (Gard) site, has been closed down since 12 September 2011, following the severe industrial accident which occurred in the melting unit, leading to the death of one member of staff and injuring four others, one of them seriously. In a resolution dated 27 September 2011, ASN stated that it would have to authorise any restart of the CENTRACO facility’s melting and incineration furnaces.

Published on 28/06/2012 at 09:00

ASN's 2011 report : "there is a before and an after Fukushima"

ASN imposes large-scale safety reinforcement work on the licensees following the CSAs

Today, 28th June 2012, ASN presented its 2011 Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France and also reviewed the follow-up to the Complementary Safety Assessments (CSAs) conducted on the nuclear facilities in the wake of the Fukushima-Daiichi accident.

Published on 26/06/2012 at 19:29

Convention on Nuclear Safety: french report is published on ASN website

As decided during the review meeting of the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS) held in April 2011, an extraordinary meeting of the CSN will take place in Vienna from August 27 to 31, 2012. One major objective is to review and share the lessons learned and the steps taken by the CSN Contracting Parties in response to the events of the accident that struck the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NPP).

Published on 11/06/2012 at 10:21

ASN contributes to international sharing of radiation protection experience

The 13th congress of the International Radiation Protection Association (IRPA) took place in Glasgow (Scotland) from 13 to 18 May 2012. The event brought together 700 specialists (including radiation protection professionals, radiation protection companies, health agencies and radiation safety authorities). The ASN was present and mobilized on the two major themes of the congress: stakeholder engagement and post-accident management.