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SOCIAL, ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIETAL RESPONSIBILITY
A3
2. Environmental information
AREVA continues its efforts in this area. A new phase of the circular economy
has begun with major operators in the nuclear industry, in particular to recycle a
maximum amount of certain resources from dismantling, such as steel.
2.1.3.
AMOUNT OF PROVISIONS AND GUARANTEES
FOR ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS
Provisions and guarantees related to the group’s end-of-
lifecycle obligations and environmental hazards
Provisions totaling 7.614 billion euros had been set aside as of December 31,
2016 for environmental hazards, including the dismantling and rehabilitation of
mining sites and facilities, nuclear facility dismantling, radioactive waste retrieval
and packaging, final waste disposal, routine cleanup, and pollution control and
reclamation of industrial sites and mines. Nuclear facility dismantling and waste
retrieval and packaging accounted for, 7.342 billion euros of this amount, 7.215
billion euros of which are borne by AREVA (Section 20.2.
Notes to the consolidated
financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2016
, Note 13.
End-of-lifecycle
operations
of this Reference Document).
2.2.
ENVIRONMENTAL RISK PREVENTION AND MANAGEMENT
2.2.1.
BIODIVERSITY PROTECTION AND DEVELOPMENT
AREVA pays close attention tomonitoring and preserving biodiversity. The protection
of plant and animal life begins in the design phase and continues throughout the
facility operating period and into site rehabilitation. Special care is devoted to native
species and to how species introduced during reclamation adapt to the local biotope
(habitat for plant and animal life).
As early as 2006, AREVA began an in-depth review of interactions between its
operations and biodiversity, supplemented with an “AREVA and biodiversity” report.
The conclusion was that, as for all industrial activities, the group’s sites:
p
use the natural environment;
p
benefit from all of the ecosystemic services offered by biodiversity (resources,
climate regulation, regulation of effluents, etc.);
p
contribute as a consequence of their activities to biodiversity erosion (waste
production, greenhouse gas emissions, use of resources, dividing up of existing
ecosystems).
AREVA integrated this theme into its environmental policy with the goal of avoiding,
reducing and if necessary offsetting the impacts of its operations on biodiversity.
Comprehensive mapping showed that the main impacts on biodiversity from the
group’s facilities came from the mining operations and from the operations of
some sites with significant environmental aspects. After work involving international
biodiversity experts, AREVA developed a tool to assess interactions between the
group’s operations and biodiversity. Usable by each site, the tool offers a means for
raising employee awareness, methods for assessing the impacts on biodiversity,
and a guide for setting up action plans.
In addition, to gain a better grasp of local biodiversity challenges, targeted ecological
inventories were taken at the major industrial sites. The most important of these
concerned the Tricastin site. The inventories provide a clear picture of existing
biodiversity at the site and were used to create maps of the ecological issues
associated with the preservation of remarkable species.
More generally, the group strives to continually reduce the environmental footprint of
its facilities andmore specifically to take simultaneous action on the fivemechanisms
known to erode biodiversity. The main actions undertaken involve combatting
climate change and the proliferation of invasive species, managing risks related to
changes in land use and to the potential impacts of releases and other industrial
pollution, and working towards the sustainable use of natural resources.
2.2.2.
SOIL MANAGEMENT
AREVA’s environmental policy for the 2013-2016 period carries on from the
policies of previous years, whose objectives are to reduce and manage all of our
environmental liabilities. In particular, it stresses greater efforts to prevent the risks
of accidents, chronic risks and risks related to facility aging. These risks can in fact
lead in some cases to the creation of environmental liabilities.
On February 6, 2014, AREVA NC filed a license application with the Frenchministry
in charge of nuclear safety for the dismantling of INB 105 at the Tricastin site.
ASN and its technical expert IRSN are reviewing the application. At the same
time, a similar application was filed for INB 93 (Eurodif gaseous diffusion uranium
enrichment plant), also to proceed with its dismantling. ASN and its technical expert
IRSN are reviewing both applications.
At former Frenchmining sites, the campaign to inventory mine tailings and to search
for the presence of radon in and around homes is continuing on schedule. As of the
end of 2015, a total of 71 residential houses had been identified in the immediate
vicinity of places where mine tailings had been reused, along with another 530
residences further away from the mine tailings. Accordingly, 588 radon kits were
sent to the owners of the houses in order to take measurements during the winter
months, when radon accumulates more easily in homes due to poor ventilation.
Following the completion of cleanup and dismantlingwork at the SICN site in Annecy
in 2013, prefectural permits for monitoring and public service were issued to the site
on July 1, 2014. Currently, the site hosts a mechanical machining company which
conducts its operations in the remaining rooms, a warehousing and maintenance
workshop where the former uranium foundry was located, and the biomass boiler
built by IDEX in the southwestern part of the site, which has provided heating for
a number of individual houses and municipalities since the beginning of the year.
At the Veurey site, SICN has filed applications to decommission the two regulated
nuclear facilities; the application for institution of public easements of March 2014 is
still under review by the nuclear safety authority ASN. Actions aimed at the complete
reindustrialization of the site continue.
2016 AREVA
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