Reactor operation feed-back in France

The Nuclear Safety Department (DSN), technical support of French Safety Authorities, is, in particular, in charge of the analysis of reactor operation and of measures taken consequently to incidents. It proposed the criteria used to select significant incidents; it analyzes such incidents. DSN also analyzes the operating experience of each plant, several years after starting. It examines foreign incidents to assess in what extent lessons learned can be applied to French reactors. The examples presented show that to improve the safety of units operation, the experience feed-back leads to make arrangements or modifications concerning not only circuits or materials but often procedures. Moreover they show the importance of procedures concerning the operations carried out during reactor shutdown