For the fifth consecutive year, the English version of the ASN annual report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection is available on its dedicated website, at the following address : http://annual-report2009.asn.fr/.

Various tabs allow the web user to identify very promptly 2009 highlights, ASN actions and regulated activities in the nuclear safety and radiation protection fields. The 16 chapters of the report may be downloaded in PDF format as well as the previous reports or the information brochures relating to INES and ASN/SFRO scales.

Together with the report, the Nuclear Security and Transparency Act and the Waste Act, ASN commissioners' biographies are also available.

A tab called "Opinion" collects web users’ opinions and will help ASN to improve this reference report.

Statement of ASN Commission: "Which level of safety for new nuclear reactors built around the world? " / One of the major ASN concerns is to achieve harmonization based on the best nuclear safety and radiation protection levels worldwide. We do not want a “two-speed” safety and we continue to promote at European and international levels safety objectives that take into account the lessons learnt from Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and September 11, 2001 events. In the event of proposals to export nuclear reactors which do not meet these safety objectives, ASN will not hesitate to declare that such reactors could not be built in France.

The EPR Reactor Building containment is formed of two containment walls with a space between them. There is an inner wall made of prestressed concrete [1] and an outer wall made of reinforced concrete. The inner containment wall has an internal liner made of steel. This whole assembly ensures that radioactive substances are contained under normal and accident conditions and protects the reactor from external hazards. The functions of the inner containment wall require certain conditions to be complied with in construction.

The full report on the international IRRS (Integrated Regulatory Review Service) audit, carried out at the request of the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) from 29 March to 3 April 2009, has just been submitted to the ASN. The hundred-page text provides supplementary details beyond the initial findings presented by the international experts at the end of the audit.

In May 2009, Reactor 1 at the Tricastin nuclear power plant in the Drôme département was shut down for four months for the “third ten-year inspection”.