[en] Conclusion: • Preventing or managing a radiological or nuclear emergency may be thought of as the ultimate purpose of IRSN. • IRSN dedicates a lot of effort to the continuous improvement of Emergency, Preparedness and Response. • A high priority is given to enhance the IRSN’s emergency strategy specifically regarding the post-accident management and the development of international activities.

[en] Based on an analysis of events declared to the ASN and inspection observations performed in the field of interventional radiology, this report outlines that the majority of these events could have been avoided and that they result from a lack of culture in radiation protection, notably an unawareness of doses delivered to patients or received by practitioners, and of risks related to exposure to ionizing radiations. The report notably outlines that events are related to a lack of staff and means in the field of patient and personnel radiation protection, an underdeveloped risk management and radiation protection implementation, lacks in the management of delivered or received doses and absence of approaches of professional practice assessment, operator insufficient education, and weaknesses in the management of subcontracted operations. Recommendations are made related to needs in medical radio-physics, identification of acts and patients at risk and definition of patient follow-up modalities, the implementation of an approach of professional practice assessment, the storage of dosimetric data, the improvement of operator technical education, the control of subcontracted operations, and the anticipation of technical and organisational changes

[en] This decision specifies modalities of achievement of ionising radiation dose assessments delivered to patients for medical imagery acts for diagnosis purposes, or during radio-guided interventional practices. It also defines diagnosis reference levels, and, for some acts, diagnosis guiding values. The different articles of this decision specify the meaning of some terms, the role of some actors, and references to legal texts. Appendices specify general and specific rules for dose assessment, data archiving and analysis, provide a list of acts and reference levels for different types of examinations (scanner, radiology, and so on)

[en] This first part contains legal and regulatory texts extracted from the Public Health Code and related to health general protection and to health products (medical devices), from the Social Security Code, and from the Labour Code related to individual work relationships, to health and safety at work, to work places, to work equipment and means of protection, to the prevention of some exposure risks and of risks related to some activities. This document is an update of the previous version from January 25, 2011

[en] This second part gathers texts extracted from the Public Health Code and related to ionizing radiations (general measures for the protection of the population, exposure to natural radiations, general regime of authorizations and declarations, purchase, retailing, importation, exportation, transfer and elimination of radioactive sources, protection of persons exposed to ionizing radiations for medical or forensics purposes, situations of radiological emergency and of sustained exposure to ionizing radiations, control), to the safety of waters and food products, and to the control of medical devices, to the protection of patients. It also contains extracts for the Labour Code related to workers protection. This document is an update of the previous version from March 2011

[en] After having recalled that the ASN has already stated its opinion about a continued operation of the whole set of 900 MW nuclear reactors beyond their fourth decennial inspection under some conditions, and that conditions of a continued operations beyond 50 years will be defined during the fifth decennial inspection, this publication addresses the issue of a continued operation beyond 60 years. As EDF already outlined mechanical strength issues for some components, two technical issues are more particularly evoked. Other aspects will have to be addressed: return on experience on an earthquake, impact of climate change, safe operation of fuel cycle management installations which could have an impact on reactor availability, and approaches to the fleet standardisation. An appendix more precisely evokes the above-mentioned technical problems (main pipe bends in the primary circuit, return on experience on the earthquake in the Cruas nuclear plant), and also issues related to reactor vessels, to containments, to climate change, and to modifications of exploitation conditions

No abstract available

[en] Given the size of the French nuclear program, the management of radioactive waste is an important stake for France and a sensitive issue for the French public. It is also a very difficult matter to discuss due to the emotions and passion expressed by some of the stakeholders. The French National Plan for Radioactive Materials and Waste Management (PNGMDR) is produced every three years, in accordance with a 2006 law. It reviews the existing management modes, identifies the foreseeable need for storage and disposal facilities and determines the targets to be met for radioactive waste for which there is as yet no final management solution. A national public debate was organized in France in 2019 to discuss the future PNGMDR's contents. In France, such debates are organized by the National Commission for Public Debate (CNDP), an independent organization which produces a report at the end of the debate. One of the conclusions of the CNDP's report is that it is very difficult in France to speak about nuclear issues. Some meetings were cancelled because of too strong an opposition. A second conclusion is that regular citizens did not participate. One last conclusion is that there is a willingness over all the participants to the debate to be more involved in the preparation of the next National plan. (authors)

[en] The 5. French National Plan for Radioactive Materials and Waste Management (PNGMDR) has been prepared after an intense two years phase of concertation. The PNGMDR is produced every five years, in accordance with a 2006 law. It constitutes an essential tool for overseeing and coordinating the management of radioactive materials and waste, ensuring a transparent, integrated and sustainable management of these substances regardless of their nature, their radioactivity level and their origin. It reviews the existing management modes, identifies the foreseeable need for storage and disposal facilities and determines the targets to be met for radioactive waste for which there is as yet no final management solution. For the first time, a national public debate was organized in France from April to September 2019 to discuss the next PNGMDR's contents. According to the conclusions of the debate, it was decided to create a new committee to reinforce the governance of the radioactive waste management. Until 2019, the plan was drawn up following discussions within a pluralistic working group which, under the joint chairmanship of ASN and the Ministry in charge of Ecology, brought together environmental protection non-governmental organizations, representatives of assessment and regulatory authorities, the producers of radioactive waste and the waste management organizations. The new committee, chaired by an independent person, is an extension of the existing pluralistic group including also national elected officials, civil society members and representatives of local authorities. This committee worked from September 2020 to March 2021 and gave its opinion to the Government on the orientations of the future Plan. Based on the results of the national debate, on the conclusions of the new committee and on ASN's advice, the Government has prepared a new Plan. The main orientations of the 2021-2026 Plan are: - To enhance the governance of the Plan which is now prepared under the sole responsibility of the Government and not jointly with ASN. This plan is established for five years instead of three. It is also decided to continuously involve the public in the implementation of the current and in the preparation of the next Plan. - To have a better consistency between the PNGMDR and the French National Energy Plan (PPE). Since there is an obvious link between the nuclear energy policy and radioactive waste management, the results of the implementation of the PNGMDR will be taken into account in the framework of the preparation of the next PPE (2024-2028), which will decide the future of nuclear energy in France. - To strengthen the control of the real perspectives of valorization for radioactive materials like depleted uranium, plutonium or spent fuel. If there's no potential, these materials should be classified as waste and should be treated as such, which means that the owners shall set aside adequate financial provisions. - To develop a centralized fuel storage pool intended for operation by 2034 on the La Hague site in order to cope with the foreseen shortage of the current spent fuel storage capacities, and to consider the possibility of dry fuel storage if needed, due to the shortage of existing storage capacities. - For the very low level waste mainly produced by the dismantling of nuclear facilities, to pursue the studies to estimate the future amount of waste and the necessity of new repositories and to clarify the operation conditions for a potential metal recycling facility project. - For the low level long lived waste produced by the dismantling of the Gas-cooled reactors and coming from radium-bearing waste, to review the global management strategy, including the research for a possible repository. A site in the Aube department is under consideration by ANDRA. - For the High-level and Intermediate-level long-lived waste, ANDRA will file the creation authorization application for a deep geological repository (CIGEO) in May 2022. In parallel of the examination of the application, the Plan requests to work on the governance of the project and on a better interaction with the public, to clarify the implementation of the reversibility concept, to define the terms and conditions of the initial industrial pilot phase and to pursue researches on alternatives to a deep geological repository. The paper presents in more detail the content of the new 2021-2026 PNGMDR. (authors)

[en] A first document indicates the improvement guidelines for the ASTRID project based on the French experience in the field of sodium-cooled fast neutron reactors, addresses the safety objectives as they are presented for the ASTRID project, discusses how the project includes a regulation and design referential, and how it addresses various aspects of the design approach (ranking and analysis of operation situations, defence in depth, use of probabilistic studies, safety classification and qualification to accidental situations, taking internal and external aggressions into account and taking severe accidents into account at the design level). It comments the guidelines related to the first two barriers, to main safety functions (control of reactivity and of reactor cooling, containment of radioactive and toxic materials), to dismantling, to R and D for safety support. A second document is a letter sent by the ASN to the GPR (permanent group of experts in charge of nuclear reactors) about the safety guidance document for the ASTRID prototype. The third document is the answer and contains comments and recommendations by this group about the content of this document, and therefore addresses the same topics as the first document. The last document defines the framework of the approach to this document