Autorité de sûreté nucléaire
The Autorité de sûreté nucléaire (English: Nuclear Safety Authority, ASN) is an independent French administrative authority set up by law 2006-686 of 13 June 2006 concerning
From 2006 to 2012, the president of the ASN was André-Claude Lacoste[1] who was also a founding member and had been chairman of the International Nuclear Regulators' Association (INRA) and the Western European Nuclear Regulators' Association (WENRA).[2] He was also the chairman of the Commission on Safety Standards (CSS) of the IAEA.
Since November 2018, the president of the ASN is Bernard Doroszczuk.[3]
Early during the
During 2015 and 2016 major nuclear safety issues arose, following a discovery at the Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant, concerning about 400 large steel forgings manufactured by Areva's Le Creusot Forge since 1965 that had carbon-content irregularities that weakened the steel. A widespread programme of reactor checks was started[5][6] leading to 20 of France's 58 reactors being offline in October 2016.[7][8] These steel quality concerns may prevent the regulator giving the life extensions from 40 to 50 years, that had been assumed by energy planners, for many reactors.[9] Le Creusot Forge had maintained concealed files which had now been disclosed to ASN following new management by Areva. ASN characterised the current situation in January 2017 as worrying.[10] In April 2017 ASN published the requirements for forging to resume at Le Creusot Forge, which has been out of operation since December 2015.[11][12] In 2018 ASN introduced stricter monitoring of component production in response to the problems found at Creusot Forge.[13]
See also
References
- ^ André-Claude Lacoste on aciers.free.fr Archived July 20, 2011, at the Wayback Machine (in English)
- ^ WENRA website Archived March 18, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "ASN overview".
- ^ taken from Fukushima I nuclear accidents page
- ^ Andrew Ward (28 October 2016). "French nuclear outages threaten higher UK power bills". Financial Times. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
- ^ John Large (26 September 2016). Irregularities and Anomalies Relating to the Forged Components of Le Creusot Forge (PDF). Large Associates (Report). Greenpeace France. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
- ^ Lee Buchsbaum (1 November 2016). "France's Nuclear Storm: Many Power Plants Down Due to Quality Concerns". POWER. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
- ^ Bate Felix, Geert De Clercq (8 November 2016). "France could face winter power cuts, hit by nuclear dependence". Reuters. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
- ^ "France's nuclear-energy champion is in turmoil". The Economist. 3 December 2016. Retrieved 3 December 2016.
- ^ "French regulator lists concerns at new-year press meeting". Nuclear Engineering International. 3 February 2017. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
- ^ "ASN sets conditions for Creusot Forge restart". World Nuclear News. 18 April 2017. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
- ^ "French regulator lists conditions for operation of Le Creusot Forge". Nuclear Engineering International. 20 April 2017. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
- ^ "French regulator tightens control of manufacturing". World Nuclear News. 11 June 2018. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
External links
- Official website (in English)