Contrôle review No. 161: Radioactively polluted sites and grounds

Foreword

Site polluted by radioactive substances ? That's any site, abandoned or currently used, on which radioactive substances, either natural or artificial, have been or are being used or stored in such conditions that the site is hazardous for health and the environment.
Since the creation of DGSNR in February 2002, the management of sites polluted with radioactivity is a priority for the Nuclear Safety Authority. I have therefore explicitly dedicated a team to take charge of this activity, and to coordinate necessary actions, both inside ASN and with other concerned administrative bodies.

I decided to organise, jointly with the director for the prevention of pollution and risks of the ministry for environment, the first national conference on “radioactively polluted soil and sites” to exchange experiences and points of view on the subject between different stakeholders (administrations, industrial companies, environment protection non-governmental organisations, lawyers…), in order to identify action strategies for the treatment of radioactive pollution.

This national conference was held on May 4th, 2004, in Paris. It allowed the establishment of a first “white book” that brings together national and foreign contributions, and describes precisely what the current practises are, in France as well as abroad, in the field of radioactively polluted site management. This document (in French) and the conference act are available on the web site asn.gouv.fr.

This conference has showed that it is essential to be able to keep an institutional memory of relevant polluted sites, to improve the situation and avoid delays in order to ensure the safety of people by remedial action, taking into account all technical, health, financial, legal factors, to reinforce social community participation and to have a real public service financing source available.

A certain number of future actions have therefore been defined, with the overall goal to improve pollution prevention, to complete the inventory of relevant, and to improve the efficiency of government action in the field of polluted sites. In particular, the relevant administrative procedure, dating back to 1997, will have to be updated soon.
The management of sites polluted by radioactivity is a difficult topic. It combines technical difficulties, financial difficulties taking into account the associated high costs, and sometimes the very understandable distress of people with private property concerned by pollution In the name of national solidarity and population health protection, the Government has to be able to seek the responsible parties in an equitable way and make them aware of their responsibilities, but also to intervene rapidly and judiciously to find solutions to these problems that are often inherited from historic practises.

André-Claude LACOSTE
Director of the French nuclear safety authority