The ASN adopts a position on small-beam radiotherapy treatments (radiosurgery)

In a letter from its Chairman, André-Claude Lacoste, dated 1st July (available on the ASN website, www.asn.fr), the ASN informed EDF that it had not identified any generic problem that might cause it to doubt EDF’s capacity to assure the safety of their 900-MW reactors up to the age of forty years.

International Scientific Seminar on Seismic Risk and Nuclear Safety: the ASN identifies new focuses for regulatory modernisation

The international scientific seminar on seismic risk in nuclear installations, held in Strasbourg on 17 June 2009 and organised by the ASN in conjunction with the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI) and the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), allowed the ASN to identify various ways in which regulations concerning seismic risk could be modernised.

Extension of the operating lifetime of 900-MWe nuclear reactors up to 40 years: ASN considers that the conclusions of the generic studies conducted by EDF are satisfactory

On 1 July 2009, the French Nuclear Safety Authority (Autorité de sûreté nucléaire – ASN), in a letter from its Chairman, Mr André-Claude Lacoste, informed Electricité de France (EDF), the French electrical utility that ASN had not identified any generic problems capable of jeopardising EDF’s capability to ensure the safety of its 900-MWe reactors up to 40 years.

On 25 June 2009, the Council of the European Union adopted the Nuclear Safety Directive

The adoption of this directive constitutes an important step towards the creation of a legal framework for nuclear safety common to all Member States.

Applicable Procedure for Issuing Creation Authorisations for Nuclear Power Reactors

The French government announced recently the possibility to undertake the construction of a second nuclear-power reactor of the European-Pressurised-Reactor type (EPR) on the Penly Site, Seine-Maritime Department, where two other nuclear reactors are already implemented, each producing 1,300 MWe.