IRRS follow-up mission to France - October 2017

23 3.6. STABILITY AND CONSISTENCY OF REGULATORY CONTROL There were no findings in this area in the initial IRRS mission. 3.7. SAFETY RELATED RECORDS 2014 MISSION RECOMMENDATIONS, SUGGESTIONS S5 Suggestion: The regulatory body should consider reviewing the current framework to ensure that common standards for the tracking of licensees’ commitments and ASN follow-up actions are met throughout ASN’s offices. Changes since the initial IRRS mission Suggestion 5: In late 2014, ASN published a new procedure for the follow-up of requests and commitments. The procedure covers requests and commitments initiated from: ASN's inspections, ASN's analyses of licensees’ responses, significant events, authorisations and enforcement measures. The procedure defines an example for the follow-up table format. Each ASN regional division currently has their own follow-up tables based on the facilities supervised in their region. ASN has plans to continue the work by developing a common national level tool for all of ASN. Status of the finding in the initial mission Suggestion 5 (S5) is closed as ASN has published a new procedure for the follow-up of requests and commitments which provides an example for the follow-up table format. Tables have been implemented in the regional divisions. 3.8. COMMUNICATION AND CONSULTATION WITH INTERESTED PARTIES There were no findings in this area in the initial IRRS mission. Policy Discussion 1 Human and financial resources related to upcoming challenges The purpose of this policy discussion was for the IRRS team to provide insights to ASN on how to ensure that it has access to, maintains, and efficiently uses the necessary human and financial resources to provide adequate oversight of the activities that it regulates. Since 2014, with the support of the Government, ASN and IRSN have obtained additional human and financial resources from the Parliament. Since 2014, ASN has been allocated 50 new positions. ASN is concerned that resources still are not sufficient to address the unprecedented safety challenges it will continue to face. In 2017, ASN requests the recruitment of an additional 15 FTE for the 2018-2020 three-year period, corresponding to 5 FTE each year. This assessment takes into account delays regarding some facilities and new needs in response to the discovery of irregularities in the Areva NP Creusot Forge plant. ASN will review its needs in the light of the future budgetary decisions. The IRRS team acknowledged the challenges faced by ASN and the efforts made to reinforce the graded approach while at the same time establishing new positions. Due to the uncertainties associated with regulating the nuclear industry, it is often difficult to anticipate the future resource requirements of the regulatory body. The IRRS team acknowledged that the people doing the work know best about what is necessary to conduct their work on both a short and long-term basis. The