ASN Report 2017

147 ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2017 Chapter 04  - Regulation of nuclear activities and exposure to ionising radiation ཛྷ ཛྷ the CEA site at Cadarache in 2011; ཛྷ ཛྷ the environmental radioactivity monitoring facilities in the Paris area in 2016. The next inspection planned by the European Commission will be in May 2018 on the Areva NC site at La Hague. 4.2 Environmental monitoring In France, many parties are involved in environmental radioactivity monitoring: ཛྷ ཛྷ the nuclear facility licensees, who perform monitoring around their sites; ཛྷ ཛྷ ASN, IRSN (whose roles defined by Decree 2016-283 of 10th March 2016 include participation in radiological monitoring of the environment), the Ministries (General Directorate for Health (DGS), General Directorate for Food, General Directorate for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control, etc.), the State services and other public players performing monitoring duties nationwide or in particular sectors (foodstuffs for example, monitored by the Ministry responsible for Agriculture); ཛྷ ཛྷ the approved air quality monitoring associations (local authorities), environmental protection associations and the CLIs. The French National Network for environmental radioactivity monitoring (RNM) brings all these players together. Its primary aim is to collate and make available to the public all the regulatory environmental measurements taken on French territory, by means of a dedicated website www.mesure-radioactivite.fr . The quality of these measurements is guaranteed by subjecting the measuring laboratories to an approval procedure. 4.2.1 The purpose of environmental monitoring The licensees are responsible for monitoring the environment around their facilities. The content of themonitoring programmes to be implemented in this respect (measurements to be taken and frequency) is defined in ASN resolution 2013-DC-0360 of 16th July 2013 and in the individual requirements applicable to each installation (Creation Authorisation Decree, discharge licensing orders or ASN resolutions), independently of the additional measures that can be taken by the licensees for the purposes of their own monitoring. This environmental monitoring: ཛྷ ཛྷ helps gives a picture of the radiological and radio-ecological state of the facility’s environment through measurement of parameters and substances regulated by the prescriptions, in the various compartments of the environment (air, water, soil) as well as in the various biotopes and the food chain (milk, vegetables, etc.): a zero reference point is identified before the creation of the facility and environmental monitoring throughout the life of the facility enables any changes to be tracked; ཛྷ ཛྷ helps verify that the impact of the facility on health and the environment is in conformity with the impact assessment; ཛྷ ཛྷ detects any abnormal increase in radioactivity as early as possible; ཛྷ ཛྷ ensures there are no facility malfunctions, including by analysing the ground water and checking licensees’ compliance with the regulations; ཛྷ ཛྷ contributes to transparency and information of the public by transmitting monitoring data to the RNM. Following initial experience feedback from application of the above-mentioned resolution of 16th July 2013, the requirements concerning the environmental monitoring programme to be implemented by the licensees were clarified and updated by ASN resolution 2016-DC-0569 of 29th September 2016, approved by the Minister for the Environment, Energy and the Sea in the Order of 5th December 2016. 4.2.2 Content of monitoring All the nuclear sites in France that produce discharges are subject to systematic environmental monitoring. This monitoring is proportionate to the environmental risks or drawbacks of the facility, as presented in the authorisation file, particularly the impact assessment. The regulatory monitoring of the BNI environment is tailored to each type of installation, depending on whether it is a power reactor, a plant, a research facility, a waste disposal facility, etc. The minimum content of this monitoring is defined by the Order of 7th February 2012 amended setting the general rules for BNIs and by the above-mentioned ASN resolution of 16th July 2013. This resolution obliges BNI licensees to have approved laboratories take the environmental radioactivity measurements required by the regulations. Depending on specific local features, monitoring may vary from one site to another. Table 8 gives examples of the monitoring performed by the licensee of an NPP and of a research centre or plant. When several facilities (whether or not BNIs) are present on the same site, joint monitoring of all these installations is possible, as has been the case, for example, on the Cadarache and Tricastin sites since 2006. ASN environment inspection at CEA’s Cadarache centre, July 2017.