Modernization of the IRSN's remote sensing network

IRSN is the French national technical support organization on radiation protection and nuclear safety risks. Environmental monitoring is one of the goals given by the French regulation to IRSN at its creation in 2002, in collaboration with French national authority ASN. The main goals of radiological environmental monitoring are (during peacetime or emergency situation): • Establishing knowledge about environmental levels to define normal situation: permanent monitoring all over France; • Alarming: being able to detect any abnormal increase of radioactivity levels and to characterize it (natural or artificial); • Ensuring a complementary monitoring made by the operators of nuclear installations: independent monitoring strategy; • Protecting population: providing data to allow calculations to estimate doses or consequences on population; • Data dissemination: providing as quickly as possible relevant information to public to ensure transparency.