From Dijon to Washington - from the mustard capital to the capital of the United States

ASN and the NRC wish to promote their cooperation and regard the exchange of inspectors as mutually beneficial. After 6 years spent in the French nuclear safety authority, Autorite de surete nucleaire (ASN) in the field of inservice inspection and aging management, I was assigned in April 2009 to the American nuclear safety authority, United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (U.S. NRC or NRC). This assignment of 3 years should include two phases: a first stage in the Division of License Renewal (DLR) in the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR), where the license renewal represents an important item, and a second stage in the Office of New Reactors (NRO), in order to take part into the different activities linked to the licensing and engineering of new reactors. In this article, I will explain some of the main differences that struck me during my first months of assignment in DLR about the industrial background, the regulatory framework of nuclear power plants in the United States and the organization of the NRC. (author)