Version française

Friday June 17 2011

Transparency and nuclear safety

CEA
CEA/Fontenay-aux-Roses is pressing ahead with its policy on transparency and accountability to the public, by publishing a new issue of the Public information report on nuclear safety and radiation protection at the facility and a new Environmental information bulletin.


Public information report on nuclear safety and radiation protection

In application of national “Transparency and nuclear safety” legislation, CEA/Fontenay-aux-Roses drafts its Public information report on nuclear safety and radiation protection at the facility. This report gives in-depth feedback on the findings of operations covering nuclear safety, radiation protection, environmental monitoring and radioactive waste management.

CEA/Fontenay-aux-Roses has implemented the technical and organization measures needed to effectively drive its clean-up and decommissioning programme while fully controlling facility safety.

All the operations carried out proved full compliance with the safety standards benchmarks. Progress on these safety standards is governed via authorizations delivered by the French national nuclear safety authority (the ‘ASN’) or issued internally by the Fontenay-aux-Roses facility’s executive management team.

In 2010, monitoring on operational process failures at mainland nuclear installations led to six events being filed with the ASN ― all without impact on populations or the environment. Radiation protection surveillance measures showed that the annual doses of radiation exposure for mainland nuclear installation workers were well below the regulatory thresholds.

Nuclear waste management surveillance figures demonstrated that potential impact on human health is still way below (several fold lower) regulatory thresholds and way below natural background exposure in the human environment. Environmental monitoring figures confirm the negligible environmental impact of operations led at the Fontenay-aux-Roses facility. Radioactive waste is handled, managed and transported as stipulated in the regulatory requirements and following established procedures to facilitate both storage and evacuation to any identified spent fuel outlets available.

Environmental information bulletin

The environmental information bulletin keynotes the analyses led under a programme to stringently monitor facility impacts on each ecological compartment (water, air, soil).

Our extremely stringent environmental site monitoring system integratively encompasses all in-facility activities. Results from the 2010 analysis campaign clearly demonstrate that the waste our activity generates has zero environmental impact. Keeping this track record remains our top priority.