Reporting irregular activities to ASN - Whistle-blower

The purpose of this portal is to receive reports of irregularities encountered in nuclear facilities or during activities entailing an ionising radiation risk, such as the transport of radioactive substances or certain medical practices. This is a direct link between ASN and someone wishing to alert it of something of which they have become aware and which could present a risk to the general interest.

Examples of irregularities that could be reported are the falsification of documents or measurement results.

Exceptions to use of this portal

This portal is not designed to receive alerts ²covered by certain regulatory provisions such as the notification of significant events or certain cases, such as breaches of the Labour Code, which are subject to specific regulations. These notifications shall be made to the competent administrations via their specific means.
A non-conforming labour situation must for example be reported to the competent labour inspectorate. ASN’s area of competence only covers nuclear power reactors. The contact details of the labour inspector must be easily available to all employees.

The contact details of the whistle-blower as required by the form are needed  so that ASN can:

• acknowledge receipt of the alert;
• contact them if clarification is required;
• inform them if action has been taken following their alert.

ASN guarantees the strict confidentiality of the data transmitted. They may however be transmitted to the judicial authorities if they so request.

Reminder of whistle-blower regulations

According to the law, if I am to be considered a whistle-blower:

• I must be an individual, in other words I am not submitting the alert as a company, NGO, association, etc.;
• I must be acting in good faith, in other words the irregularities I am reporting can, in my opinion, prejudice the general interest;
• I must be disinterested, in other words I am acting to defend the general interest and not my own personal interests. In this respect:
  • I do not submit an alert to harm others;
  • I do not derive any benefit, financial in particular;
  • My professional activity is not to alert to or report reprehensible behaviour;
• the subject of the alert must be a crime or misdemeanour, or the result of a serious and manifest breach of a legal principle or there must be a threat or serious prejudice to the general interest;
• the facts, information or documents, regardless of form or medium, shall not be covered by national defence confidentiality, medical confidentiality or the confidentiality of the relations between a lawyer and their client;
• I am personally cognisant of the facts.

To find out more:

• ACT 2016-1691 of 9 December 2016 on transparency, the fight against corruption and the modernisation of economic life (known as the Sapin II Act)

If the alert concerns the organisation employing the whistle-blower or for which he or she works in a professional capacity and, in the absence of severe and imminent danger or in the presence of a risk of irreversible damage, the whistle-blower shall first of all have alerted their hierarchical superior, their employer or the correspondent designated by their organisation before contacting ASN.

When these conditions are met, the whistle-blower may not be exposed to any legal or disciplinary measures relating to the alert.

The fact of acting in a disinterested manner and in good faith is particularly important: the abusive use of the system, in particular with the aim of causing harm, could be qualified as defamation or slanderous accusation and result in prosecution.

Additional information

In order to submit an anonymous alert, please send a letter to ASN headquarters.

For confidentiality reasons, please use a double envelope. The inside envelope must be marked "traitement des signalements".

To access the alert reporting form, select one of these two options: