This paper describes the role of risk insights in the safety analysis of French Nuclear power plants. Although the regulatory position is and remains deterministic, the probabilistic approach takes an increasing place in the safety decisions. Despite a limited regulatory framework, in fact the risk insights are more and more taken into consideration as a supplement to the traditional deterministic demonstration. France holds a rather unique position with a large, highly standardized reactor fleet, build by a single constructor and operated by a single operator. This situation has provided favourable conditions for the application of PSAs to power reactors since the 80s, explaining also the rather not prescriptive regulation, which is more a continuous technical dialogue between the regulators and the operators.
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