Les cahiers de l'ASN #03 - 10 years after Fukushima

The French, European and international approaches to nuclear safety following the Fukushima accident INTERNATIONAL The IAEA draws up a 12-point action plan EUROPE The European Council requires stress testing of the NPPs. WENRA draws up the specifications FRANCE ASN prescribes stress tests on all French nuclear facilities EUROPE HERCA and WENRA recommend improved transboundary coordination of population protection measures FRANCE ASN prescribes a range of means capable of dealing with extreme situations, known as the “hardened safety core” Internationally and in Europe, safety doctrines are modified One of the roles of the IAEA * is to draw up and promote high-level international safety standards and it reacted to the Fukushima accident by implementing a 12-point action plan as of the end of 2011, aiming to reinforce nuclear safety. The work done to implement this action plan is included in the report from the IAEA Director General on the Fukushima accident and in the five technical volumes that accompany it. These publications, which were issued at the IAEA General Conference in 2015, examine the causes and consequences of the accident. In February 2015, the Vienna Declaration of the Contracting Parties to the Convention on Nuclear Safety was to go a step further, by setting out the principles aiming to prevent accidents with radiological consequences and to mitigate their consequences should such accidents occur. With regard to the European Union , the Euratom Directive* of 8 July 2014 aims to create a framework for ensuring nuclear safety in Europe, by learning the lessons of the Fukushima accident. It was transposed into French law in 2016 and strengthens ASN’s powers of oversight and sanction. It requires that at least every 10 years, the State organise an evaluation of its regulations and its regulatory authority, and sets up a process for a thematic peer review every 6 years. For its part, WENRA initiated an update of its reference safety levels in 2014, to take account of the lessons learned from the accident. Each member then undertook to incorporate these levels into its regulations, thus reinforcing safety requirements and their harmonisation among the member countries of the association. On the topic of protection of the population, recommendations were published in 2014, called the HERCA*-WENRA approach , to make advance planning for the consequences in Europe of an accident on a scale similar to that of Fukushima, with improved transboundary coordination of protection measures during the first phase of a nuclear accident. They notably recommend preparations for evacuation up to 5 km around the NPPs and preparations for sheltering and the ingestion of iodine tablets up to a radius of 20 km, as well as the possibility of extending t hese measures to 20 and 100 km respectively. 10 years after Fukushima, what safety improvements for nuclear facilities in France? • 7