ANCLI-CLI: Mediators of access to information and expertise - A tool at the service of the public [Opening keynote address: International conference on challenges faced by technical and scientific support organizations in enhancing nuclear safety]

The Local Information Commissions (Commissions Locales d'Information, or CLIs) came into being in 1977 with the Local Supervisory Commission at the Fessenheim nuclear power plant. There had been a struggle, and Solange Fernex made a decisive contribution to the establishment of this body. In 1981, under pressure from the Deputy Mayor of Cherbourg, the Standing Special Commission on Information at the La Hague establishment was created. The same year, a circular from the then Prime Minister, Pierre Mauroy, invited all sites to set up CLIs. Twenty-five years have passed, and CLIs exist at nuclear sites and even at chemical plant sites under another name. To exchange information and experience, an association of the presidents of CLIs was initially created. In 2005, in order to form the federation of CLIs, the Association Nationale des Commissions Locales d'Information (ANCLI) changed its statutes, giving itself an administrative board consisting of CLI delegates. At its meeting in February 2005, the administrative board set itself three major objectives: - To make the voice of the CLIs heard on all subjects that may concern them (law on transparency, law on waste management, protection of the environment and of persons); - To represent all the CLIs (or similar bodies) set up at nuclear facilities while being representative of all the groups that make them up (elected bodies, associations, unions, commercial chambers, experts, etc.); - To offer the CLIs technical and human resources to better accomplish their mandate: expert resources through the Scientific Committee of ANCLI and other measures such as setting up a web site to serve as a portal for distributing information from ANCLI to the CLIs and among the CLIs themselves