ASN Report 2017

461 ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2017 Chapter 16  - Radioactive waste and contaminated sites and soils ཛྷ ཛྷ inspection on the ground of areas identified in the overflight to confirm the presence of waste rock; ཛྷ ཛྷ treatment of areas of interest incompatible with the land usage. The second phase of this action plan was completed in 2014. The Ministry responsible for the Environment defined the procedures for managing cases of confirmed presence of mining waste rock in an Instruction to Prefects of 8th August 2013. Some work has been carried out since 2015 on sites classified as priorities, that is to say sites where the calculation of the added annual effective dose excluding radon due to the presence of waste rock on generic scenarios exceeds the value of 0.6 millisieverts per year (mSv/year) on the basis of a radiological impact study. Within the framework of the PNGMDR 2016-2018 Areva submitted in January 2018 an assessment of the actions taken for the inventorying of mining waste rock in the public domain. All these operations are under the administrative surveillance of the Prefect, on the basis of proposals from the Regional Directorate for the Environment, Planning and Housing (Dreal). ASN assists the Prefects with regard to the radiation protection of workers and the public and the review of the management routes. In this context it encourages the complete clean-out of the sites when this is technically possible and asks that any other procedure implemented be justified with regard to this reference strategy. Furthermore, it is particularly vigilant to cases that could result in the exposure of persons, particularly to radon, in order to identify and deal with any such cases. Lastly, it ensures that the actions are carried out in complete transparency with maximum involvement of the local actors. The long-term behaviour of the mining residue disposal sites Redevelopment of the uranium processing tailings disposal sites consisted in placing a solid cover over the tailings to provide a geochemical and radiological protective barrier to limit the risks of intrusion, erosion, dispersion of the stored products and the risks of external and internal (radon) exposure of the surrounding populations. The studies submitted for the PNGMDR 2013-2015, based on ASN opinion of 11th October 2012, have provided greater insight into: ཛྷ ཛྷ the strategy chosen for the changes in the treatment of water collected from former mining sites; ཛྷ ཛྷ the doctrine for assessing the long-term integrity of the embankments surrounding tailings disposal sites; ཛྷ ཛྷ the comparison of the surveillance data and the results of modelling; ཛྷ ཛྷ the evaluation of the long-term dosimetric impact of the mining waste rock piles and the mining waste rock in the public domain in relation to the results obtained in the context of the Circular of 22nd July 2009; ཛྷ ཛྷ transport of uranium from the waste rock piles to the environment; ཛྷ ཛྷ the mechanisms governing the mobility of uranium and radium within uranium-bearing mining tailings. As required by the ASN opinion of 9th February 2016, these studies are continuing as part of the PNGMDR 2016-2018 in order to: ཛྷ ཛྷ supplement the studies of the long-term evolution of processing residues and mining waste rock; ཛྷ ཛྷ supplement the method of evaluating the long-term resistance of embankments; ཛྷ ཛྷ study the possibilities of upgrading or shutting down the water treatment stations and ultimately proposing concrete risk and impact-reduction actions on the various sites. Thus, in January 2017, Areva supplemented its study on the relation between the discharged flows and the accumulation of marked sediments in the rivers and lakes. This study is currently being examined by ASN. Two other Areva studies are expected at the beginning of 2018, addressing: ཛྷ ཛྷ the result of the actions taken to inventory the waste rock in the public domain; ཛྷ ཛྷ the progress in the modelling of long-term transfer of uranium and radium in certain residue disposal sites. With regard to mining waste rock, sites containing waste rock outside the perimeter of the former uranium mining sites must continue to be treated. The consultation process must also be continued with the stakeholders on all these subjects, within the framework of the PNGMDR as well as at the local level. The Pluralistic Expert Group (GEP), involvement and informing of the stakeholders Set up in 2005, the Limousin Pluralistic Expert Group (GEP) submitted two reports to the Minister responsible for the Environment and to the Chairman of ASN in 2010 and 2013. The first report proposes recommendations for the short-, medium- and long-term management of former uranium mining sites in France. ASN and the Ministry responsible for the Environment are thus engaged in a plan of action dedicated to the implementation of these recommendations. The second report presents the results drawn from the presentation of the GEP’s conclusions and recommendations to the local and national consultative bodies and an evaluation of the implementation of its recommendations. ASN is moreover continuing its involvement in the steering committee for the national inventory of uranium mining sites, baptised Mimausa (Memory and impact of uranium mines: summary and archives, available on www.irsn.fr ). Long-term management of the former mining sites ASN is contributing to a technical guide on the management of former uraniummining sites that is currently being finalised under the coordination of the Ministry for Ecological and Inclusive Transition. It shall more particularly respond to several recommendations resulting from the GEP report of September 2010 on the Limousin uraniummining sites: it will address the administrative status of the sites, the procedures for stopping mining work and the requirements in terms of redevelopment in the long-term perspective.