AREVA is a participant in the French National network of environment radioactivity measurements (RNME), which launched its new website on February 1, 2010. The RNME network was set up in 2005 in application of French public health regulations. Its tasks are to help assess the radioactive dose exposure for the population and to inform the public. The network is headed by the French nuclear safety authority ASN and is managed by the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety IRSN.
While AREVA adhered to the RNME initiative as soon as it came into being in October 2003, regulatory obligations for nuclear operators went into effect only with the Order of June 27, 2005. All main AREVA group sites transmit their regulatory measurement data, the quality of which is guaranteed by the sites’ ASN-certified laboratories.
These sites now send the RNME their dose rate survey results each month, and the results are posted at the RNME website to be consulted by experts and the public alike.
The RNME is part of an innovative performance improvement initiative that is unique in Europe. The objective is twofold: 1) to guarantee that the radiation measurement data provided by the certified laboratories meet standards, and 2) to better inform citizens on the radiological status of the environment through multiple information sources. An important milestone in the initiative’s accountability goal has been opening up the National network’s database to the public in response to growing demand from communities in France.
Along the same lines, the AREVA group is publishing environmental monitoring results in the sites annual reports on nuclear safety and radiation protection and in the environmental and social reports, made available to the general public, the local information commissions (CLI), and the nuclear safety accountability and information committee HCTISN. The AREVA group also posts the results at its website.