LES ACTIVITÉS NUCLÉAIRES : RAYONNEMENTS IONISANTS ET RISQUES POUR LA SANTÉ ET L’ENVIRONNEMENT It should be noted that these last two measures are proportionate to the gravity of the infringements observed. With regard to administrative sanctions, the administrative enforcement Committee, on a referral from the ASNR Commission, may impose an administrative fine, the principle of which is set out in 4° of II of Article L. 171-8 of the Environment Code, with amounts adapted to the civil nuclear sector under the provisions of Article L. 596-4 of the same Code, when a decision to issue formal notice, previously taken by ASNR against a licensee or an RNA to require compliance of the activity with the regulations in force, has not been complied with by the latter. The law also makes provision for interim measures to safeguard security and public health and safety or protect the environment. ASNR can therefore: ∙provisionally suspend operation of a BNI, immediately notifying the Ministers responsible for nuclear safety, in the event of any serious and imminent risk; ∙at all times require assessments and implementation of the necessary measures in the event of a threat to the abovementioned interests; ∙take decisions to temporarily or definitively revoke the administrative title (authorisation and registration) issued to the RNA, after having informed the party concerned that it is entitled to submit observations within a given time, in order to comply with the exchange of views procedure. In 2025, ASNR sent out eight formal notices: four for BNIs and four for small-scale nuclear activities. The year 2025 demonstrated the effectiveness of the system of enforcement measures and administrative sanctions implemented by ASNR. The formal notices issued by ASNR did not require any further action and resulted in the expected compliance. 8.2 The action taken following criminal violations The texts also make provision for criminal infringements, misdemeanours or breaches. This will for example be noncompliance with the provisions concerning the protection of workers exposed to ionising radiation, non-compliance with formal notice served by ASNR, performance of a nuclear activity without the required administrative title, non-compliance with the provisions of ASNR resolutions or decisions, or irregular management of radioactive waste. Any violations observed are written up in reports by the nuclear safety or radiation protection inspectors and transmitted to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which decides on whether or not to prosecute. The Environment Code makes provision for criminal penalties, a fine or even a term of imprisonment (up to €150,000 and three years in prison), depending on the nature of the violation. For legal persons found to be criminally liable, the amount of the fine can reach €10M, depending on the infringement in question and the actual prejudice to the interests mentioned in Article L. 593‑1. The Public Health Code also makes provision for criminal penalties, consisting of a fine of from €3,750 to €15,000 and a term of imprisonment of six months to one year. Depending on the gravity of the offence, additional sentences may be applied to legal persons. Class five penalties (fines) are provided for, in the field of nuclear safety, for the infringements listed in Article R. 596-16 of the Environment Code, as well as in the field of radiation protection, for the infringements listed in Articles R. 1337‑14‑2 to 5 of the Public Health Code, for example in the case of non-compliance with the provisions relating to the declaration of significant events, the administrative regime (transmission of the licence application file, compliance with general requirements, information on the change of Radiation Protection Advisor – RPA). With regard to pressure equipment, the provisions of Chapter VII of Title V of Book V of the Environment Code, which apply to products and equipment representing a risk, which covers pressure equipment, including that installed in BNIs, may notably order the payment of a fine, plus a daily penalty payment as applicable, until compliance with the formal notice served on the licensees. This Chapter also includes provisions applicable to the manufacturers, importers and distributors of such equipment, aiming to ban the marketing, commissioning or continued operation of an equipment item and to serve the licensee with formal notice to take all steps necessary to ensure conformity with the legislative and regulatory provisions applicable to its activity. In the performance of their duties in NPPs, the ASNR labour inspectors have at their disposal all the inspection, decisionmaking and enforcement resources of ordinary law inspectors (pursuant to Article R. 8111-11 of the Labour Code). Observation, formal notice, administrative sanction, report, injunction (to obtain immediate cessation of the risks) or even stoppage of the works, offer the ASNR labour inspectors a broad range of incentive and constraining measures. Lastly, if the inspectors discover facts that could constitute an offence that does not fall within their remit to draw up a Violation Report (PV), for example a case of documentary irregularity resembling fraud (see point 7.1), if it is an offence, a report is made to the relevant Public Prosecutor. In 2025, six violation reports were issued by ASNR inspectors (excluding labour inspectors). Table 16 shows the number of PVs drawn up by the ASNR inspectors between 2019 and 2025. In addition, a judgement led to the conviction of a person who had drawn up a report on compliance with a technical decision of ASNR indicating a compliant state when in fact it was not. The facts were discovered by ASNR inspectors. 174 ASNR Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2025
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