The approach by Andra for the remediation of contaminated sites - 13128

Full text of publication follows: According to the 28 June Act on the management of radioactive waste and materials, Andra is in charge of cleaning up contaminated sites with radioactivity, when the responsible for the pollution has disappeared and when the polluter-payer principle cannot be applied. Radioactive pollution results in most cases from the radium industry. It occurs in sites that hosted in the 1930' workshops where objects were manufactured with radium or radium extraction plants from uranium ore. At that time radium was considered a substance beneficial to health and practices were very far away from present standards. The sites are now reused in unsuitable conditions. These sites may be presently residential areas (houses or apartments), offices, shops or other industrial areas. In some cases sites have been reassigned to particularly sensitive uses such as schools or kinder gardens. Andra also works on contaminated sites with other radionuclides, in particular in a former factory dedicated to the extraction of rare earths (thorium) or in a laboratory that has manufactured radioactive tracers (tritium and carbon 14). The latter has both a radioactive pollution and a chemical pollution. The staff in charge of remediating these sites has to take into account new constraints due to the fact intervention is performed often in a dense urban environment and in private places. Inhabitants of these places must be relocated during remediation works. The size of the waste packages must be adjusted to the local condition (for instance small stairways in Parisian buildings, narrow and crowded streets). Communication issues are very important, of course first with owners of the contaminated sites who may legitimately express concern when a pollution is discovered in their living place, but also with other local residents and elected representatives who request explanations on the actual hazards and the remediation strategies that are selected. The State funds through a state subsidy this mission of Andra as it is considered as a general interest mission. Strategies for remediation and the amount of allocated subsidies are discussed within a national commission chaired by the general manager of Andra. It includes ministries in charge of these issues, the regulatory body, technical support expert organizations, a mayor, and environment protection associations, Andra has been remediating about thirty polluted sites in France. The duration of interventions vary from a few days to several years and costs from a few thousand euros to several million euros. The 28 June waste Act enabled the implementation of a framework to conduct a proactive policy for the remediation of sites with a radioactive contamination. Andra has established an operational organization to carry out this policy.