Nuclear safety. Summary of the intermediate report of the special joint parliamentary committee on nuclear safety, present and future outlook of the nuclear industry

Following the Fukushima events, the Parliamentary Office for Scientific and Technological Assessment (OPECST) was officially asked at the end of March 2011 - jointly by the National Assembly Bureau and by the Senate Committee on the economy, sustainable development, territorial and regional planning - to carry out a study on nuclear safety, and the present and future outlook of the nuclear industry. To carry out this study, seven members of the National Assembly economic affairs and sustainable development committees were also involved, as well as eight members of the Senate Committee on the economy, sustainable development, territorial and regional planning. The first part of this study, devoted to nuclear safety, was completed on 30 June 2011 by the publication of an intermediate report. This report assembles and summarises the information collected during six public hearings and seven trips to nuclear sites. France is one of the nuclear countries where the management of safety is both the most demanding and the most transparent. In this respect, the independence of the Safety Authority is the best guarantee of strictness in the safety field and the existence of pluralistic bodies, such as the Local Information Committees, is the best guarantee of the transparency of safety. But no country can pride itself on being totally safe from a natural disaster of an unexpected scale. The French nuclear industry must therefore ratchet up one more notch its investment in safety and strengthen the means of university research. It must imagine events of even greater intensity, cascading accidents, with interactions between neighbouring industrial sites. Investment must be made by placing safety requirements above any economic consideration and in strict compliance with the specifications of public authorities supervising safety. (authors)