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SOCIAL, ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIETAL RESPONSIBILITY
A3
2. Environmental information
AREVA performs some 100,000measurements and analyses annually on samples
taken at 1,000 locations to monitor environmental radioactivity around its sites.
Releases in water
Nitrogen and uranium releases are directly related to the activity levels and types
of products processed in the group’s facilities.
AREVA NC la Hague accounts for most of the group’s nitrogen releases (about
550metric tons per year). These releases are directly related to the site’s production
level (use of nitric acid in the process). They have declined since the new plants have
come onstream with deployment at the end of the 1990s of effluent management
aimed at recycling the acid. They have been relatively constant since then.
Uranium releases in aquaticmedia from the group’s sites, taken together, have been
stable for several years. The changes observed aremainly due to legacymining sites,
now shut down, with residual uranium releases varying as a function of rain levels.
Atmospheric releases
The group’s operations release some gases which contribute to global warming,
depletion of the ozone layer and atmospheric pollution. These are primarily:
p
direct emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) associated with the burning of
fossil fuels (CO
2
) and with nitrogenous releases (N
2
O) from operations related
to the treatment of uranium oxide;
p
indirect emissions of greenhouse gases associated with the use of electricity
and thermal power; and
p
gaseous releases such as volatile organic compounds (VOC), acid-forming gases
and ozone-depleting gases.
Greenhouse gas releases
Since its establishment, the group has led a strongly proactive strategy for reducing
its direct emissions of greenhouse gases. The aim of the current environmental
strategy is tomaintain a high level of performance in terms of environmental footprint.
Among the new actions taken in 2016 are the change in the method of shipping
UF
4
from the AREVA NC Malvési site to the AREVA NC Tricastin site (by rail).
For direct greenhouse gas emissions, a total of 396,755 metric tons of CO
2
equivalent was released compared to 526,865 metric tons of CO
2
equivalent in
2015. The decrease is related to the June 2016 startup of Comurhex II.
Carbon production to identify greenhouse gases related to scope 3 has not been
assessed recently.
Radioactive releases
Radioactive releases have fallen sharply in the past 30 years, reflecting the
continuous improvement initiatives deployed by the group’s entities. For example,
the radiological impacts of the la Hague site have been divided by five to seven
in the past 30 years, and the impacts on the reference group have been stable
for several years now at around 10 μSv/year, down from approximately 70 μSv in
1985. These efforts paved the way for compliance with more stringent regulatory
standards in the European Union, as transposed into French law, which currently
set the maximum added effective dose to the public at 1 mSv per year, compared
to an average of 2.9 mSv per year for exposure to naturally occurring radiation in
France (source: IRSN, 2016) and 1 mSv to 10 mSv per year in the rest of the world.
Nevertheless, AREVA is continuing its studies on the feasibility of further reducing
radioactive releases from the la Hague plant, particularly within the framework of the
plant’s release permit. These actions are also consistent with the ALARA initiative
(“as low as reasonably achievable”) and with the use of best available technology
(BAT) to the extent technically and economically reasonable, taking into account
the characteristics of the facility, its geographic location and local environmental
conditions.
The environmental reports published by the group’s French nuclear sites since
1995 and the annual safety reports made available to the public in application of
article L. 125-15 of the Environmental Code list radioactive releases and their trends.
Measurements of these releases are subject to cross-checks and unannounced
inspections by the French nuclear safety authority ASN.
The radiological impacts of the nuclear sites on the most exposed members of
adjacent populations (reference groups) are estimated each year. These impacts
are expressed as the added effective dose in millisieverts per year (mSv/yr.), an
indicator of health effects. The radiological impacts are calculated based on actual
gaseous and liquid radioactive releases measured during the year and account for
the different possible exposure pathways to the populations in question.
The radiological impact assessment model of la Hague factors in the various types
of radiation (alpha, beta and gamma), the two potential exposure pathways (external
exposure and internal exposure by ingestion or inhalation), and the specific behavior
of each radionuclide in the human body. It is the result of collaborative efforts
with French and international experts and associations under the umbrella of the
Groupe Radioécologie Nord-Cotentin (GRNC, the Nord-Cotentin radioecology
group). Following the recommendations of the GRNC, the site performs a sensitivity
analysis each year. Radiological impacts are calculated for five nearby towns, where
radiological monitoring stations are located. If the impacts on one of the towns are
greater than on the reference populations, this is made public. Independent experts
conducted epidemiological studies to assess the direct health effects of radioactive
releases on exposed members of the public. All of the studies conducted over the
past 20 years have concluded that the site has a very low impact, with the added
effective dose for one year being equivalent to about one day of exposure to naturally
occurring radioactivity in the Nord-Cotentin region of France.
The group has set a goal of optimizing its management of radiological impacts and
standardizing its radiological impact assessment models at all sites with radioactive
releases, taking into account special local circumstances related to the life style
and eating habits of the population. The order of magnitude of the impacts from
the group’s nuclear facilities is very low, at equal to or less than 0.01 mSv
(1)
.
In France, AREVA provides all of the necessary information to the Local Information
Commissions (CLI) set up by the government in the vicinity of major energy facilities
to foster dialogue with local populations.
The group also takes measures to limit as much as possible the impacts of added
external radiation at the site boundary to 1 mSv/yr. This corresponds to an extreme
theoretical scenario in which an individual stays at the site boundary for an entire
year without interruption, i.e. 8,760 hours. More realistic exposure scenarios are
taken into consideration when acceptable solutions on an economic and social
level cannot be found. To ensure the continuity of the program to reduce the dose
at the site boundary, the sites have bolstered dosimetry-based monitoring systems
when necessary.
(1) To be compared with the average of about 2.4 mSv per year for naturally occurring exposure in France.
2016 AREVA
REFERENCE DOCUMENT
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