The ASN currently has little data to enable it to assess the impact of the uses of sources of ionising radiation for industrial and research purposes, except with respect to worker exposure.

According to the existing data collected by the IRSN concerning exposure of workers active in industry or research, these sectors respectively comprise 36,787 and 11,147 exposed persons who are subject to dosimetric monitoring. In industry, 90% of those monitored (IRSN 2004 figures) received an effective dose over one year of less than 1 mSv and the annual limit of 20 mSv was found to have been exceeded 10 times, while no overshoot was detected in the research sector where nearly all (99.8%) of the staff monitored were not exposed to an effective annual dose of more than 1 mSv. It is worth noting a slight drop in the average dose received by industrial workers, which is about 250 microsieverts, and a relative drop in the number of industrial workers who received an annual dose in excess of 1 mSv (10% above this value in 2004 as opposed to 20% in 2003). The number of occasions on which the 20 mSv limit was exceeded fell significantly, from 40 in 2003 to 10 in 2004.

The impact of non-BNI industrial or research applications on the environment and the general public has not been the subject of any specific monitoring, except special cases. The available information concerns general environmental monitoring as performed by the IRSN, in particular ambient gamma radiation measurement, which on the whole shows no significant level of exposure above variations in background natural radioactivity, except occasionally and momentarily when gamma radiography is detected by the monitoring and alarm system.

The gradual expansion of ASN radiation protection supervision, allied with environmental monitoring targeted on certain installations and the use of appropriate computer models, should provide a more accurate picture of the impact of industrial and research applications. These actions will have to be incorporated into multi-year programmes.

The incidents declared primarily concern loss or theft of radioactive sources or portable devices containing them (lead detection, etc.), inappropriate use or total or partial accidental destruction of a radionuclide source.

For the year 2005, there were about twenty, including:
- 15 losses or thefts of sealed sources from their place of use;
- 2 potential over-exposure incidents.

With regard to supervision of the applications of ionising radiation in industry and research, the ASN continued to define its priorities in order to optimise use of the means available to it. At the same time, the gradual growth in the ASN's resources continued so that within a few years it will be in a position to carry out all of its duties.

The action taken in previous years was also carried on and supplemented by:
• continuation of the work to update the licences issued to the manufacturers and suppliers of radioactive sources and the actions undertaken concerning the research sector;
• application of the licensing system to electrical generators of ionising radiation used in industry and research;
• visits carried out in particular to the users and those in possession of gammagraphs and gammadensity meters;
• rationalisation of licences within the establishments whenever possible, with continuation of this particular objective, which will be made easier by the planned changes to the Public Health Code.