Transformation, openness to society and CSR

Independent of the IRSN, the Ethics Commission (CED) is composed of seven members who, under its Chair, Françoise Roure, contribute to the governance of the Institute by providing their insight into questions concerning ethics and code of conduct, be it with regard to research, expert appraisal, interactions with industry, or relations with society. In its activities report for the period 2020-2021, the Ethics Commission details the four notices it published between the start of 2020 and mid-2021 and discusses more broadly the state of the work and the topics treated in the course of the meetings it held over the period concerned.

In a changing world, and in line with the societal expectations and major environmental issues, IRSN deploys its corporate social responsibility policy over a wide spectrum of actions: scientific and technical activities, management modes, and daily practices. This dynamic draws on the dedicated governance set up internally, involving the Institute’s employees, as well as externally, with space reserved to exchanges with other stakeholders, in particular the Ministries and public bodies for the pooling of experience. In this way the Institute contributes to the dynamic of Agenda 2034 France, for achieving the 17 sustainable development objectives set by the Member States of the UN.

The signing of the agreement on renewal and skills transfer of March 2020 testifies to IRSN’s intention to manage the development of its payroll. The initial conclusions for the set of provisions in this agreement are positive: during the subscription period from April 2022 to June 2021, 121 employees signed up for the early retirement scheme out of the 222 who were eligible, constituting a 54.5% subscription rate, higher than the average rate observed for this type of scheme. In parallel, the Institute hirings constituted 37.4% young people aged 30 or under, and 56.9% under-35s in 2020. Lastly, the expected savings are consistent with the simulations made when the scheme was launched.

2021 signalled major progress in the managerial transformation culture, with a general sense of momentum being manifested both in terms of governance and with respect to local managers. Hence, 33 groups of managers were able to work together to develop experiments aimed at making the operation of their units simpler and more fluid. A good proportion of the experiments conducted are being analysed within a “simplification” task force, with a view to rapid deployment across the Institute.

This has meant that, with the renewal of certain managerial mandates, a new approach has been able to be tested for the examination of certain applications for job vacancies in 2021. The objective has been to encourage the emergence of applications from new sources, to expand the assessment body for applicants beyond the purely technical scope of the posts in question, and to promote more collegial decision-making. Furthermore, the Institute’s innovation laboratory (IRSN Lab) has contributed to redefining the role of the Institute’s governance bodies (executive committee and management committee) for greater efficiency in their operation, decision-making and decision implementation.

Taking over in 2021 the commercial training activities managed until the end of 2020 by the ENSTTI EEIG, IRSN intends to continue, with its IRSN Academy, to build on its capital of know-how and the skills of its experts with the goal of improving safety and radiation protection in France and worldwide.

The training dispensed in France since September 2021 has enabled 124 people to be trained in the course of 13 training sessions, aimed mainly at professionals responsible for risk prevention, control and management. IRSN Academy obtained, moreover, QUALIOPI certification in December 2021, proof of its competences in the organisation and management of occupational training.

Encouraging the sharing of knowledge and collaboration between persons practising the same trade (assistant, manager, etc.) or the same missions (quality, etc.), or who share common interests (CSR, etc.): this is the goal of the communities of practices programme of IRSN, of which eight communities were launched in 2021 and eight others are in the course of preparation. In parallel, the increased number of documents (>500,000) accessible with the internal search engine and implementation of a new collaborative monitoring platform have improved access to and sharing of information and knowledge, enabling employees to use, on a daily basis and in the framework of their activities, the extensive knowledge and know-how assets acquired by the experts of the Institute over the years.

The communication department refined its editorial line in 2021 in order to make its research and expertise activities still more accessible to every kind of audience.

• The creation of new digital formats: podcasts enhancing the content of our magazine, Repères, and analysis videos: “4 minutes to understand”. The same objective: getting closer to our public, making technical and scientific topics easier to understand, and making better use of the social networks.
• The development of digital tools for the general public, such as the “Radon and radioactivity” application. This app makes it possible to estimate an individual’s exposure levels to radioactivity from natural sources in just a few clicks and to calculate the radon potential in their habitat.
• The embodiment of our scientific communication in researcher portraits, the promotion of the “3 minutes for a thesis” contest and the contents partnership with the magazine “Pour la science” for publishing in-depth articles on IRSN research projects.
• The active participation of IRSN in the Fête de la Science (Science Festival) organised by the Ministry for Higher Education, Research and Innovation, combining meetings with young people and thematic exhibitions in several towns and cities.

Internally, a new intranet has been launched: mirroring the transformation of the Institute, and co-constructed with and for the employees, MyIrsn is heavily focused on information and sharing news. The communities created in this intranet enable staff to be organised and brought together around common topics.

The EUROSAFE forum which took place in Montrouge on 22-23 November 2021 provided the opportunity to promote the openness to society actions developed by IRSN and to engage in exchanges with the members of ETSON on the question, for a TSO, of opening up its expertise and research to society. The discussions were facilitated by the establishment of a discussion space for discussing the various initiatives implemented by IRSN: presentation of the Openness to society charter; developing dialogue with civil society and taking account of society’s concerns, by way of three emblematic approaches: the 4th periodic review of 900 MWe reactors, the storage of HLW/ILW-LL waste, and the OpenRadiation collaborative project for the measurement of ambient radioactivity by the public. These discussions lay the groundwork for the possibility of more in-depth interactions with certain TSOs, such as BelV, BfS and CSN.

The round table organised on the role of society in safety and radiation protection enabled the Director of ANCCLI to give an account of the expectations and contributions of society with respect to this type of technical dialogue. He insisted in particular on the conditions necessary for society to be able to “exercise its role of civic vigilance in order to contribute to safety” and highlighted the importance of setting up places to conduct ongoing dialogue over time.

In the framework of its policy of openness to society, the teams of the Institute regularly meet with those of associations or NGOs in order to better understand their expectations. This was the case in 2021 with France Nature Environnement, Greenpeace and the Fondation pour la Nature et l’Homme (Foundation for Nature and Mankind).

At a meeting held on 21 June 2021 between its experts and the Radiation Protection Advisers (RPA) of Greenpeace, the members of this international network of experts and IRSN presented their respective modes of organisation, methods and measurement resources in the event of a crisis. The discussions mainly related to the need for exchanges in order to test these modes of organisation and to the importance of transparency concerning the information available in the event of a crisis.