Stress Test News

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.

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.

The European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG) and the European Commission have adopted, on April 26 2012, the report on the results of the stress tests on European nuclear power plants.
This report responds to the request from the European Council on 25 march 2011 asking for the launch of stress tests on the European nuclear power plants to take account of the first lessons learned from the Fukushima accident.

ASN is making public its report on the complementary safety assessments (CSA) carried out further to the Fukushima accident in Japan.
This morning the ASN President, André-Claude Lacoste, delivered it personally to the Prime Minister.

Following the complementary safety assessments of the priority nuclear facilities, ASN considers that the facilities examined offer a sufficient level of safety for it not to request the immediate shutdown of any of them. At the same time, ASN considers that for the continuation of their operation, an increase in the robustness of the facilities to extreme situations, beyond their existing safety margins, is necessary, as rapidly as possible.

ASN will therefore be requiring that the licensees take a series of measures and reinforce the safety requirements relative to the prevention of natural risks (earthquake and flooding) and risks associated with other industrial activities, the monitoring of subcontractors and the handling of nonconformities.

On completion of the Complementary Safety Assessment (CAS) process engaged further to its decisions of 5 May 2011, ASN will present its conclusions on these CAS at the beginning of 2012.

France transmitted its National Progress Report on 15 September.

The accident that occurred on 11th March 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station in Japan, following an earthquake and tsunami of exceptional magnitude, is a major event from which every possible lesson should be drawn.

The French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), which in charge of monitoring French nuclear installations, has ensured that a process of extensive in-depth feedback regarding the accident at Fukushima has been swiftly undertaken. This will be a long process. It will take several years, as was the case after the accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.

By the resolutions taken on 5 May 2011, the French Nuclear Safety Authority (Autorité de sûreté nucléaire – ASN) has required all operators of relevant basic nuclear installations, including AREVA, the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives – CEA), the French national power utility (Électricité de France – EDF) and the Laue-Langevin Institute (ILL[1]) to submit by 1 June 2011 at the latest, a memorandum describing the methodology they adopted in order to conduct the complementary safety assessment (évaluation complémentaire de la sûreté – ECS) for some of their installations with respect to the nuclear accident that occurred at the Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in Japan, on 11 March 2011.

On Wednesday, 25 May, the Chairman of ENSREG, Andrej Stritar, accompanied by EU Energy Commissioner Günter Oettinger, announced that an agreement had been reached between the Nuclear Safety Regulators of the 27 EU Member States and the Commission with regard to stress tests for European nuclear power plants. These audits can be officially launched as of 1 June 2011.

ASN believes that it is essential to learn from the accident which occurred at Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant, as it has been undertaken after the Three Mile Island and the Chernobyl accidents.