requesting country to take account of the recommendations issued by the experts. A follow-up mission, the purpose of which is to verify the progress made in taking account of the recommendations, is held between 18 months and 4 years after the initial mission, depending on the type of audit. ASN’s situation regarding these missions is presented below. IRRS Missions The IRRS missions are devoted to analysing all aspects of the framework governing nuclear safety and the activity of a safety regulator. ASN is in favour of holding these peer reviews on a regular basis, and incorporates their results into its continuous improvement approach. It should be noted that, pursuant to the provisions of the 2009/71/Euratom Directive amended in 2014, the Member States of the EU are already subject to periodic and mandatory peer reviews of their general nuclear safety and radiation protection oversight organisation. The IRRS missions are a means of meeting this obligation. In 2024, a number of ASN staff members took part in IRRS missions in the United Kingdom, Canada, South Korea, Bulgaria and Ghana. OSART Missions In France, it is ASN that asks the IAEA to organise OSART missions devoted to the safety of NPP operation, in coordination with EDF, the licensee of the NPPs. In 2024, an OSART mission took place in France in the Nogent-sur-Seine NPP. NHSI Initiative In 2024, ASN continued its commitment to the work of the Nuclear Harmonisation and Standardisation Initiative (NHSI), a wide-ranging project initiated by the IAEA in 2022 to support the large-scale development of SMRs. Phase I, which ended in 2024, notably required that the nuclear safety authorities propose a collaboration method for a joint evaluation of this type of reactor models, during the phase prior to the review phase required by the regulations. The purpose of Phase II is notably to share the experience of the authorities who had already jointly carried out this type of collaboration. The regional training and assistance missions ASN responds to requests from the IAEA secretariat, in particular to take part in regional radiation protection training and in assistance missions. The beneficiaries are often countries of the French-speaking community. In addition, and still under the supervision of IAEA, ASN also participated in the Regulatory Cooperation Forum (RCF). This Forum, created in 2010, aims to establish contacts between the safety regulators of countries adopting nuclear energy for the first time and the safety regulators of the leading nuclear countries, in order to identify their needs and coordinate the support to be provided, while ensuring that the fundamental principles of nuclear safety are met (independence of the regulator, appropriate legal and regulatory framework, and so on). In 2024, in addition to preparing assistance for the nuclear safety regulators of Ghana and Poland, the RCF continued to reinforce its cooperation with the EU (EINS) and with regional safety regulator forums. Management of nuclear and radiological emergency situations ASN takes part in the IAEA’s work to improve notification and information exchanges in radiological emergency situations. On this subject, ASN takes part in the exercises organised by the IAEA to test the operational provisions of the Convention on the Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident and the Convention on Assistance in the case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency, called “convention exercises” or “ConvEx exercises”. These exercises, which are more specifically designed to enable the participants to acquire practical experience and understand the procedures involved in preparing and running these interventions, are of three types: ∙the ConvEx-1 exercises, more specifically designed to test the emergency lines of communication established with the points of contact in the Member States; ∙the ConvEx-2 exercises, designed to test particular aspects of the international framework for the preparation and performance of emergency interventions and the assessment and prognosis provisions and tools for emergency situations; ∙the ConvEx-3 exercises, aimed at assessing the emergency intervention provisions and the resources in place to deal with a severe emergency for several days. In 2024, ASN took part in one “ConvEx” exercise (see chapter 4). ASN also takes part in defining international assistance strategy, requirements and means and in developing the Response Assistance Network (RANET) within the IAEA. This network was mobilised in 2022 to address the needs for individual protection and radiation protection resources expressed by Ukraine. 3.2 The Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the OECD Created in 1958, the NEA today comprises 38 member countries from among the most industrially developed states. Its main goal is to help the member countries maintain and expand the scientific, technological and legal bases essential to the safe, environmentally-friendly and economical use of nuclear energy. Owing to the war in Ukraine, Russia’s membership of the NEA was suspended on 2 April 2022. Within the NEA, ASN is more particularly involved in the work of the Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA). It also takes part in the Committee on Radiological Protection and Public Health, the Radioactive Waste Management Committee, the Committee on Decommissioning of Nuclear installations and Legacy Management, as well as several working groups of the Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations, including the Working Group on Human and Organisational Factors (WGHOF). The various NEA committees coordinate working groups involving experts from the member countries. Five working groups, two expert groups and an information exchange forum underpin the activities of the Committee. ASN is involved in each of them and in particular chairs the working group on the nuclear procurement chain and the working group on reactor surveillance, and is vice-chair of the expert group on sharing operational experience feedback. In 2024, ASN took part in an NEA emergency exercise (INEX-6). Modules 2, “Food safety”, and 4, “Radioactive waste management”, were run. 3.3 The International Nuclear Regulators’ Association (INRA) The International Nuclear Regulators Association (INRA) comprises the heads of the regulators of Canada, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. This association is a forum for regular and informal discussions concerning topical matters in these various countries and the positions adopted on common international issues. It meets twice a year in the country holding the Presidency, with each country acting as president for one year in turn. Two meetings were held in 2024. The first, in Germany, discussed the situation of the nuclear facilities in Ukraine, topical matters from the association’s members, the decommissioning of nuclear facilities, the rising number of SMR projects and the service life extension of the existing NPPs. Following the meeting, the chairmanship of INRA was entrusted for one year to the ASN Chairman. The second meeting, held in Vienna in the margins of the IAEA General Conference, was notably an opportunity for the association to approve the revision of its terms of reference. A thematic session also looked at the implications of the growing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the nuclear field. These exchanges confirmed the need for more in-depth discussions, notably to share experience and visions on how the reliability of the data used by AI can be guaranteed, the conditions in which a final decision may or may not be delegated to an AI system, and cybersecurity. 202 ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2024 International relations
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