Lastly, management of radioactive waste must be determined prior to the creation of any new activities or the modification of existing activities in order to: ∙ensure the availability of processing routes for the various categories of waste likely to be produced, from the front-end phase (production of waste and packaging) to the back-end phase (storage, transport and disposal); ∙optimise the waste management routes. 2.2.5 Management of contaminated sites Management of sites contaminated by residual radioactivity resulting either from a past nuclear activity or an activity which generated deposits of natural radionuclides warrants specific radiation protection actions, in particular if rehabilitation is envisaged. Depending on the current or future uses of the site, decontamination objectives must be set. The removal of the waste produced during post-operation cleanout of the premises and removal of the contaminated soil must be managed from the site through to storage or disposal. The management of contaminated objects also follows these principles. 2.2.6 Activities using radioactive substances of natural origin Exposure to ionising radiation of natural origin, when increased due to human activities, justifies monitoring measures if it is likely to create a hazard for the exposed workers and, where applicable, the neighbouring population. Thus, certain activities included in the definition of “nuclear activities” can use materials containing naturally occurring radioactive materials at concentration levels that could significantly increase the exposure of workers to ionising radiation and, to a lesser extent, the exposure of populations living near the places in which these activities are carried out. The natural families of uranium and thorium are the main radionuclides found in these activities, which include: ∙the production of thorium compounds, the manufacture of products containing thorium and the mechanical working of products containing thorium; ∙the production of oil and gas, geothermal energy, titanium dioxide, phosphate fertilizers and cement; ∙the extraction of rare earths and granites; ∙the casting of tin, lead and copper. The radiation protection measures to take in this area target not only the workers (risk of external irradiation and internal contamination, radon) but also the general public, for example in the case of effluent discharges into the environment or the production of residues that could be reused, in construction materials for example. Since 2018, these activities are subject to the system of Installations Classified for Protection of the Environment (ICPEs). 3 Monitoring exposure to ionising radiation Given the difficulty in attributing a cancer solely to the ionising radiation risk factor, “risk monitoring” to prevent cancers in the population is performed by measuring ambient radioactivity indicators (measurement of dose rates for example), internal contamination or, failing this, by measuring values (activities in radioactive effluent discharges) which can then be used – by modelling and calculation – to estimate the doses received by the exposed populations The entire population of France is exposed to ionising radiation of natural or anthropogenic origin, but to different extents across the country. The average exposure of the French population is estimated at 6.5 mSv per person per year, but this exposure is subject to wide individual variability (factor of 1 to 20), particularly depending on the place of residence (radon potential of the municipality, level of terrestrial radiation), the number of radiological examinations the person undergoes, consumption (smoking, foodstuffs) and living habits (air travel). Diagram 1 shows an estimate of the respective contributions to the average total dose of the different sources of exposure to ionising radiation for the French population. 3.1 Doses received by workers 3.1.1 Monitoring occupational exposure to ionising radiation The system for monitoring the external exposure of persons liable to be exposed to ionising radiation, working in BNIs or in small-scale nuclear facilities for example, has been in place for several decades. This system is based primarily on the mandatory wearing of passive dosimeters for workers liable to be exposed and enables compliance with the regulatory limits applicable to workers to be checked. These limits concern the total exposure (since 2003, the annual limit expressed in terms of effective dose has been 20 mSv for 12 consecutive months), obtained by adding the dose due to external exposure to that resulting from any internal contamination; other limits, called “equivalent dose limits”, are defined for the external exposure of certain parts of the body such as the hands, the skin and the lens of the eye (see “References” heading on asn.fr). The recorded data allow the identification of the cumulative exposure dose for a given period which cannot exceed three months, for each worker, including those from outside contractors. They are grouped together in Siseri (Ionising radiation exposure monitoring information system) managed by IRSN and are published annually. The results of worker exposure to ionising radiation presented below are taken from the IRSN 2023 assessment entitled La radioprotection des travailleurs – exposition professionnelle aux rayonnements ionisants en France (Worker radiation protection - occupational exposure to ionising radiation in France). From the methodological aspect, as in the five preceding years, the IRSN 2023 assessment of external exposure was based exclusively on data from individual monitoring of the external exposure of workers recorded in the Siseri database. Until 2016, the assessments were produced exclusively by aggregating the annual summaries provided by the dosimetry organisations. Consequently, external exposure results for 2023 are not directly comparable with those established since 2017. Nevertheless, in order to establish trends, the results for the years 2015 and 2016 have been reassessed applying the new methodological approach (see Table 3). Tables 1 and 2 present, per area of activity and for the year 2023, the breakdown of the populations monitored, the collective dose (the collective dose is the sum of the individual doses received by a given group of persons), and the number of times the annual limit of 20 mSv was exceeded. They show a large disparity in the ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2024 107 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 AP Nuclear activities: ionising radiation and health and environmental risks
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NjQ0NzU=