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3.4 Particular requirements
for the prevention of pollution
and detrimental effects
3.4.1 The OSPAR Convention
The international OSPAR Convention (resulting from
the merging of the Oslo and Paris conventions) is the
mechanism whereby the European Commission and
fifteen Member States, including France, cooperate
to protect the marine environment of the North-East
Atlantic. The strategic orientations for radioactive
substances consist in
“preventing pollution of the maritime
zone by ionising radiation by progressively and substantially
reducing discharges, emissions and losses of radioactive
substances. The ultimate aim is to achieve environmental
concentrations that are close to the ambient values in
the case of naturally occurring radioactive substances,
and close to zero in the case of man-made radioactive
substances”.
To achieve these objectives, the following
are taken into account:
•
the radiological impacts on humans and biota;
•
the legitimate uses of the sea;
•
technical feasibility.
Within the French delegation, ASN takes part in the
work of the committee tasked with assessing application
of this strategy.
3.4.2 The ESPOO Convention
The Convention on the assessment of environmental
impacts in a transboundary context,more commonly called
the “ESPOOConvention”, requires that the contracting
parties conduct an environmental assessment of the impacts
of activities liable to have a transboundary environmental
impact before licensing this activity and that they notify
the neighbouring country concerned of this assessment.
Certain nuclear facilities – such as NPPs, nuclear fuel
production or enrichment facilities, radioactive waste
disposal or reprocessing facilities – fall within the scope
of this Convention.
The ESPOOConventionwas adopted in1991 and entered
into force in September 1997.
3.4.3 ASN resolution 2013-DC-0360 of 16th July
2013 concerning the control of detrimental effects
and the health and environmental impact of BNIs
Resolution 2013-DC-0360 of 16th July 2013 concerning
the control of detrimental effects and the health and
environmental impact of BNIs supplements the
implementation procedures of Title IV of the BNI Order of
7th February 2012. Itsmain provisions concernmethods
for water intake and liquid or gaseous, chemical or
radioactive discharges, the monitoring of water intake
and discharges, environmental monitoring, prevention
of detrimental effects and information of the regulatory
authority and the public. With regard to environmental
protection, the BNI Order of 7th February 2012 and the
resolution of 16th July 2013 more specifically aim to
address the following main objectives or issues:
•
implement the integrated approach specified by law,
whereby the BNI systemgoverns all the risks, pollution
and detrimental effects created by these installations;
•
modify the regulations applicable to basic nuclear
installations prior to 1st July 2013;
•
incorporate into the regulations the requirements
applicable to the BNI licensees by certain individual
ASN decisions concerning water intake and effluent
discharge, in order to create amore general and uniform
framework;
•
set binding unified principles and rules applicable to
the BNIs;
•
for BNIs, adopt requirements at least equivalent to
those applicable to ICPEs and installations, structures,
works and activities (IOTA) concerned by the list
specified in Article L. 214-2 of the Environment Code,
more specifically those of the Order of 2nd February
1998 concerning water intake and consumption and
emissions of all types from installations classified
on environmental protection grounds subject to
authorisation, in accordance with the provisions of
the BNI Order of 7th February 2012;
•
adopt provisions, the implementation of which is such
as to guarantee the quality of the steps taken by the BNI
licensees for monitoring of their facilities (monitoring
of effluents and of the environment);
•
improve public information practices, making the
corresponding steps taken by the licenseesmore legible.
3.4.4 BNI discharges
BNI discharges management policy
Like all industries, nuclear activities (nuclear industry,
nuclear medicine, research installations, etc.) create
by-products, which may or may not be radioactive.
Steps are being taken tominimise their quantity through
reduction at source.
The radioactivity discharged in effluents represents a
marginal fraction of that which is confined in the waste.
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CHAPTER 03:
REGULATIONS
ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2015