2023-11-07 06:15:03
The government presents a dedicated text of 18 articles, entitled “bill relating to the organization of the governance of nuclear safety and radiation protection to meet the challenge of relaunching the nuclear sector”.
The government, which wants to reform nuclear safety in a context of relaunching the atom, proposes to bring together the two current institutions in a “Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection Authority”, to be created on January 1, 2025, according to a preliminary draft of law. Six months following having failed to have this project adopted in Parliament, then slipped into a legislative amendment, the government this time presents a dedicated text of 18 articles, entitled “bill relating to the organization of the governance of nuclear safety and radiation protection to meet the challenge of relaunching the nuclear industry”.
Consultations on the text will extend over the month of November, “in order to finalize the bill and present it to the Council of Ministers by the end of the year”, the Ministry of Transition said on Monday. energy. “The Parliament will therefore arrive at the beginning of next year,” he adds.
ASN and IRSN united under the status of independent administrative authority
According to this project, the future Authority “brings together the activities” of the current Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) and the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), “under the most protective status in French law, offering the greatest guarantee of impartiality: the status of an independent administrative authority”, explains the explanatory memorandum. “This development will make it possible to meet expectations in terms of deadlines and efficiency of the expertise, instruction, authorization and control processes,” he adds, with the government intending to “respond effectively, both in in terms of safety level and charging rate, to the unprecedented relaunch of nuclear power”.
“The future authority will not be the juxtaposition of current organizations and interfaces; on the contrary, it will make it possible to streamline instruction processes, ensure better alignment of priorities and strengthen the sharing of information,” it is further said.
For months, the inter-union of IRSN, the expert body in the sector, has been standing up once morest this reform, like the UFC-Que Choisir or the association of residents of power plants (Anccli), who fear less independence expertise and a loss of transparency.
A report intended for the PLF 2025 concerning the allocated resources
In the draft, article 4 establishes the principle of separation between expertise and decision-making processes. However, it leaves it to the future authority to define its organization. It will also be up to the internal regulations of the future authority to define the terms of publication of future expert opinions.
Concerned with retaining and attracting skills, the project provides that the future administrative authority can have the status of research establishment which the IRSN currently has. It will also be able to recruit private law employees (current status at IRSN). In terms of resources, the government plans for mid-2024 a report intended for the PLF 2025 on the human and financial needs which will be necessary for the future Authority to achieve its objectives “in the new nuclear context”.
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