ASN’S ROLE ASN monitors the correct performance of each step of the periodic safety review*. It adopts a stance on the guidelines proposed by EDF and examines the studies carried out to reassess the facility’s safety case. It conducts inspections in each of the NPPs, in particular during work related to the review. Finally, it adopts a stance on the conditions relating to the continued operation of the reactors, first of all from a generic standpoint and then reactor by reactor at the end of the review. THE GUIDELINES OF THE PERIODIC SAFETY REVIEW Compliance with the design baseline requirements: > Manage equipment ageing > Conduct a wide-ranging program of conformity checks > Correct any deviations with an impact on safety as rapidly as possible Safety improvement: > Reinforce the ability of the facilities to withstand hazards (fire, earthquake, heatwave, etc.) > Minimise situations requiring population protection measures > Mitigate the consequence of a core meltdown accident > Increase the safety of fuel storage In 2017, EDF sent ASN its proposals for the main objectives of the periodic safety review* of the 1,300 MWe reactors. In 2019, ASN issued a position statement on these objectives, taking account of the opinions of its technical support organisation, IRSN*, and its Advisory Committee (GPE)*, the members of which come from a range of scientific and technical backgrounds and from various associations. ASN considered that the general objectives set by EDF for this review are acceptable in principle, subject to certain modifications or additions. The requests made by ASN are to a large extent based on those made in 2016 for the 4th periodic safety review of the 900 MWe reactors. From 2021 to 2024, ASN examined the generic studies common to all the 1,300 MWe reactors, which were produced by EDF in response to the objectives of the review. In 2025, ASN will issue a position statement on the EDF programme concerning all the 1,300 MWe reactors, six months before the beginning of the ten yearly outage inspections* of the first reactor undergoing its 4th periodic safety review*. After an on-line consultation of the public, ASN will then regulate the continued operation of each reactor by means of technical requirements. The main steps in the 4th periodic safety review process for the 1,300 MWe reactors ASN involved the public in the early stages of the 4th periodic safety review* process for the 1,300 MWe reactors, asking them for their opinion concerning the definition of objectives. The issues of the 4th periodic safety review of the 1,300 MWe nuclear reactors • 7
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NjQ0NzU=