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The commissionmet in 2015, more specifically to decide
on the allocation of public funds for the management
of contaminated sites considered to be priorities, such
as Orflam-Plast in Pargny-sur Saulx, a clock-making
site in Charquemont, the Isotopchim site in Ganagobie
and the radium diagnosis operation.
Circular DGS/SDEA1/DGEC/DGPR/ASNNo. 2008-349
of 17th November 2008 of the Minister responsible
for the Environment relative to the management of
certain radioactive waste and sites with radioactive
contamination describes the applicable procedure
for the management of contaminated radioactive sites
governed by the ICPE regime and the Public Health
Code, whether the party responsible is solvent or not.
Whatever the case, the Prefect relies on the opinion
of the classified installations inspectorate, ASN and
the ARS (Regional Health Agency), to validate the site
rehabilitation project, and issues a prefectural order to
govern implementation of the rehabilitation measures.
ASN may thus be called upon by the services of the
Prefectures and the classified installations inspectors
to give its opinion on the clean-out objectives of a site.
The Ministry responsible for the Environment started
updating this circular in 2015. ASN is involved in this
work. Chapter 8 details the various demands concerning
contaminated sites and soils to which the ASN divisions
responded.
2.2 The Radium Diagnosis operation
InOctober 2010, the State decided to carry out diagnoses
in order to detect and if necessary treat any radium
contamination resulting frompast activities. Discovered
by Pierre and Marie Curie in 1898, radium has been
used in certainmedical (the first cancer treatments) and
craftwork activities (clock-making until the 1950s, due to
its property of radioluminescence, and the manufacture
of lightning arresters and cosmetic products).
These medical or craft activities have left traces of
radium on certain sites. The diagnosis of the sites
having accommodated an activity that used radium is a
continuation of themany actions engaged by the State in
recent years, such as the rehabilitation of sites on which
research and radium extraction activities were carried
out at the beginning of the 20th century, or the retrieval
of radioactive objects from private households, etc.
This operation is free of charge for the occupants of
the places concerned: the diagnosis consists in taking
systematic measurements to detect the presence of any
traces of radium or to confirm the absence of radium.
These measurements are performed by a team of IRSN
specialists, accompanied by an ASN coordinator,
who contacts the occupant beforehand to explain the
operation. On completion of the diagnosis, the occupants
are informed verbally of the results, with subsequent
written confirmation by letter. If traces of contamination
are detected, rehabilitation operations are performed by
Andra free of charge, with the agreement of the property
owners. Ultimately, each person concerned is given a
certificate guaranteeing the results of the operation.
Newaddresseswere added to the initial list as the diagnosis
operation progressed, withmore than 160 sites in France
being concerned at the end of 2014.
In2015, 36 sites in Ile-de France and one site inAnnemasse
had been examined. The Annemasse site was diagnosed
before the operation was launched in the Rhône-Alpes
region, at the owner’s request because a real estate
transaction was envisaged in the near future.
Eight of the 36 sites in Ile-de-Francewere excludedoutright
because the buildings are too recent with respect to the
period of potential manipulation of radium to be able
to display any radioactive contamination.
IRSN has carried out more than 430 diagnoses since the
operation began; in effect, themajority of the sites involve
either one building with many apartments or several
individual plots. The fact that the occupantswere informed
and that the operationwas free of chargewere vital factors
in obtaining the occupants’ agreement. There were only
nine refusals out of more than 430 diagnoses performed.
These diagnoses led to twenty-five rehabilitation and
renovation operations (twenty-one in Ile-de-France and
four in Annemasse).
ENERGY TRANSITION
FOR GREEN GROWTH ACT
A system of active institutional controls governing the
management of land, constructions or structures that could
cause human exposure to the harmful effects of ionising
radiation and justifying radiation protection control and
coming under the Public Health Code is currently being
defined.
By Ordinance 2016-128 of 10th February 2016, the
Government created a system of active institutional controls
relating to radioactive substances, as already exists for the
ICPEs and BNIs, when radioactive substances subsist on a plot
of land or in a building (due to contamination by radioactive
substances, after decontamination or in the presence of
naturally radioactive materials) in order to maintain a record
that will serve with regard to future uses and to define, if
necessary, restrictions on use or prescriptions governing future
development or demolition work.
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CHAPTER 16:
RADIOACTIVE WASTE AND CONTAMINATED SITES AND SOILS
ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2015