What is ASNR, the new nuclear safety authority?

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It's what ?

L’Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection Authority (ASNR) created by the law relating to the organization of the governance of nuclear safety and radiation protection of May 21, 2024 started on 1^is January 2025. It comes from the meeting of theNuclear Safety Authority (ASN) et de l'IInstitute of Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN).

Independent administrative authoritythe ASNR now ensures, on behalf of the State, the control of civil nuclear activities In France. She also exercises research, expertise, training and information missions of the public in the areas of nuclear safety and radiation protection.

Who is it ?

Chaired by Pierre-Marie Abadie, the ASNR is managed by a college of five commissionersincluding the president. Olivier Gupta is the general director. She brings together more than 2,000 employees whose specific and varied skills are used to protect people and the environment.

The ASNR is established throughout France. Its headquarters is in Montrouge (Hauts-de-Seine) and it has eleven divisions allowing it to carry out its control missions throughout mainland France and in the overseas departments and regions.

It is also established in Fontenay-aux-Roses (Hauts-de-Seine) and Cadarache (Bouches‑du‑Rhône), main sites for expertise and research in nuclear safety and radiation protection, as well as at Vésinet (Yvelines), main site for environmental monitoring. It also has expertise and research branches in Cherbourg (Manche), Les Angles (Pyrénées-Orientales) and Tahiti.

Is it accepted?

The soap opera of fusion of ASN and IRSN fueled the chronicle in 2024. This reformdecided at the Élysée, was voted in April in Parliament after a parliamentary battle and a vive opposition both unions and associations, worried about seeing a decline in public information and the separation between expertise and decision.

The IRSN inter-union has once again stepped up to the plate to share, this week, its “ concerns » concerning the internal regulations of the future entity and deplores “the uncertainties on how it works. In a press release, the CFDT, CFE-CGC and CGT organizations call “for vigilancemore than ever given the uncertainties about the functioning of the ASNR on January 2, concerns about its internal regulations and a budget impasse from February.”

While opponents of the project were worried about possible loss of independence of experts and ae opacity in the decision-making processthe inter-union insists in particular on the fact that “the independence between expertise and decision must be explicitly stated in the internal regulations” of the new entity.

At the beginning of November, the director general of IRSN estimated that there was “no guarantee” that the new single nuclear safety authority “could operate correctly” within the deadline, citing “a certain number of 'uncertainties […] on carrying out essential tasks. In September, the president of the ASN also estimated that the timetable was “tense”.

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