The management and disposal of sealed sources in France

The utilisation of sealed sources is very widespread in France, both in the medical and industrial fields. The rules for the management and retrieval of the sources are defined in the Decree of 4 April 2002. The principle of the retrieval of the sources is reliant on the supplier who is obliged to take back these sources. Financial guarantee systems have consequently been established to provide compensation for any failure by the supplier to take back the sources. The problems today in France are the absence of a disposal route and the management of the orphan sources. These have been integrated into the drawing up of the National Waste Management Plan (PNGDR) issued by the Minister for the Environment. Certain ideas and principles for the disposal of the sources have already been presented: Development of the principles of justification and recycling, development of disposal routes, development of a retrieval system for orphan sources; the importance of the establishment of financial guarantees for all the sources, the importance of consistency between the European regulations in order to have a simple return to the supplier in the case of imported sources. (author)