Mme Stéphanie Guénot Bresson has been appointed a member of the ASN Commission for a term of 6 years by a decree of the French President dated 10 December 2023. In this capacity, she replaces Mme Sylvie Cadet-Mercier, whose mandate ended on 10 December 2023.
On 5 December 2023, an ASN delegation, led by commissioner Sylvie Cadet-Mercier, met a delegation from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) led by Ramzi Jammal, acting chief executive officer (CEO), in Ottawa at CNSC headquarters.
On 6 December 2023, ASN held in Montrouge its annual steering committee meeting with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), its American counterpart to discuss regulatory priorities and topics of interest.
On 16 and 17 November 2023, during its visit to China, the ASN delegation met the licensees of the Changjiang NPP (CNNC) on Hainan Island and the Taishan NPP (TNPJVC).
During its visit to China, an ASN delegation, led by its Chairman Bernard DOROSZCZUK, met a delegation from the Chinese Atomic Energy Agency (CAEA1) led by its Chairman, Vice-minister ZHANG Kejian, in Beijing on 13 November.
On 14 and 15 November 2023, the Western European Nuclear Regulators’ Association (WENRA) held its biannual plenary meeting at ASN headquarters in Montrouge.
ASN publishes the lessons learned from the review conducted jointly with its Finnish (STUK) and Czech (SUJB) counterparts regarding the safety options of the NUWARD SMR reactor project, developed by a subsidiary of EDF.
In 2022 and in the first half of 2023, ASN continued with its monitoring of the construction of the Flamanville EPR reactor. It was particularly vigilant with regard to the treatment of the deviations detected on the main primary and secondary system welds and to the correct operation of the filtration function of the safety injection system (SIS). It continued to examine the installation start-up tests and the correct operation of the primary system protection valves.
On 26 July 2022, the SCINTIGARD radiology centre in Nîmes notified ASN of an incident concerning the contamination of a radiographer during the preparation of a scintigraphy examination, and dissemination of the contamination in the staff break room of the centre.
On the 15th June 2023, WENRA issued a position paper on the safety situation of Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant with regard to the Kakhovka dam rupture. This position is based on the work conducted by experts from WENRA, technical support organisations, including IRSN, and the European Commission.
The commissioning and operation of the Flamanville EPR reactor pressure vessel were authorised by an ASN resolution in 2018. This resolution took into account a manufacturing anomaly in the lower dome and the vessel closure head and limited the use of the vessel closure head to 31 December 2024.
On May 25, ASN presented its Report on the State of Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection in France in 2022 to the parliamentarians of the Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technical Choices (OPECST). ASN used this opportunity to ask that the reflections conducted in preparation for the next multi-year energy Plan should adopt a systemic approach to the nuclear sector.
On 3 February 2023, ASN was notified by the Cattenom nuclear power plant licensee of a significant radiation protection event concerning the exceeding of an annual individual dose limit by an employee of an EDF contractor.
