LES ACTIVITÉS NUCLÉAIRES : RAYONNEMENTS IONISANTS ET RISQUES POUR LA SANTÉ ET L’ENVIRONNEMENT 5 – Monitoring the impact of nuclear activities and radioactivity in the environment 5.1 Monitoring discharges and the environmental and health impact of nuclear activities 5.1.1 – Monitoring of discharges The BNI Order of 7 February 2012 and amended ASN resolution 2013-DC-0360 of 16 July 2013, set the general requirements applicable to any BNI with regard to their water intake and their discharges of radioactive or chemical substances. In addition to these provisions, in its resolution 2017-DC-0588 of 6 April 2017, ASN defined the conditions for water intake and consumption, effluent discharge and environmental monitoring applicable more specifically to PWRs. Apart from the above-mentioned general provisions, ASNR resolutions set specific requirements for each facility, more particularly the limits for water intake and discharge of radioactive or chemical substances. Monitoring discharges from BNIs The monitoring of discharges from an installation is essentially the responsibility of the licensee. The ASNR requirements regulating discharges stipulate the minimum checks that the licensee is required to carry out. This monitoring focuses on the liquid or gaseous effluents (monitoring of the activity of discharges or concentrations and flows of chemical substances discharged, characterisation of certain effluents prior to discharge, etc.) and on the environment around the facility (checks during discharge, samples of air, water, milk, grass, etc.) with regard to all pertinent parameters for characterising the impact of the facility on humans and the environment. The results of this monitoring are recorded in registers transmitted to ASNR every month. The BNI licensees also regularly transmit a certain number of discharge samples to an independent laboratory for crossanalysis. The results of these “cross-analyses” are sent to ASNR. This programme of cross-analyses defined by ASNR is a way of ensuring that the accuracy of the measurements taken by the licensee laboratories is maintained over time. The inspections carried out by ASNR Through dedicated inspections, ASNR ensures that the licensees actually comply with the regulations binding upon them with regard to the management of discharges and the environmental and health impact of their facilities. Every year, it carries out about 90 inspections of this type, split among the following three topics: ∙prevention of pollution and management of detrimental effects; ∙water intake and effluent discharge, monitoring of discharges and the environment; ∙waste management; ∙control of the non-radiological risks. Each of these topics covers both radiological and non-radiological aspects. Every year, ASNR carries out around fifteen inspections, usually unannounced, involving sampling and measurement (see Highlight No. 7). Since 1 January 2025, ASNR has been responsible for all radiological aspects (sampling of effluent and the environment and associated analyses). For the physico-chemical aspect, ASNR relies on specialised laboratories, independent of the licensee, which it commissions for this purpose. Finally, ASNR regularly carries out reinforced inspections involving several teams of inspectors over a number of days, designed to check the organisation put into place by the licensee to protect the environment; the scope of the inspection is then broadened to cover all of the above-mentioned topics. Within this context, situational exercises can be carried out to test the organisation implemented for pollution management (see chapter 8). HIGHLIGHT No. 6 Key findings from the 2025 review of the French population’s exposure to ionising radiation in 2022 In accordance with its remit under the Public Health Code, every five years ASNR analyses the exposure of the French population to ionising radiation from diagnostic medical imaging examinations. A new edition of this report, called “ExPRI” (Exposure of the Population to Ionising Radiation), covering the year 2022, was published in May 2025. This report details this exposure by imaging modality (conventional radiology, dentistry, scanning, nuclear medicine and interventional radiology for diagnostic purposes), by anatomical region explored, by age and by sex, and presents, in aggregate, the resulting exposure reduced to an average beneficiary, known as the average annual effective dose. It is based on diagnostic imaging procedures extracted from a representative sample of health insurance beneficiaries. It shows the changes in the French population’s exposure to diagnostic imaging in 2022 compared with the previous report, which covered 2017. The frequency of procedures fell from 1,181 to 1,083 per 1,000 beneficiaries between 2017 and 2022, representing a reduction of 8%, mainly due to a reduction of around 19% in conventional radiology procedures. The average annual effective dose per patient increased very slightly between 2017 and 2022 (+2.6%), from 1.53 mSv to 1.57 mSv. This increase is mainly due to scans and nuclear medicine procedures, which involve higher doses, and whose proportion increased over the period compared with conventional radiology. By 2022, almost 43% of the population had benefited from one or more diagnostic procedures. The proportion of women exposed is much higher than that of men: 47.3% versus 37.8%. The proportion of exposed individuals in the population depends heavily on age, from around 15% for the youngest children to just under 70% for women aged between 65 and 74. This particularly exposed population benefited from an average of 2.54 procedures over the course of 2022. This number varies according to age: children under 10 have had an average of fewer than two procedures per year, while adults over 75 have had around 3.4. The individual effective dose accumulated by this exposed population in 2022 averaged 3.7 mSv. Three areas of interest were the subject of additional analyses: • Dental CBCT: given the rapid development of dental CBCT (Cone Beam Computed Tomography), dental radiology has been analysed more specifically. The data show a sharp increase (56%) in the number of dental CBCT procedures between 2017 and 2022, which should be compared with the low level of use (around ten procedures per 1,000 beneficiaries) compared with dental panoramic radiography (around one hundred procedures per 1,000 beneficiaries). • International comparison: French data from ExPRI reports have been compared with global data from the latest UNSCEAR report, published in 2022, based on 2009-2018 data. Generally speaking, trends in the frequency of procedures and average individual effective doses in France are similar to those observed worldwide, particularly for countries with comparable income levels. • Impact of the Covid-19 epidemic: between the publication of the previous ExPRI report on 2017 data and the report on 2022 data, France was affected by the Covid-19 epidemic. The impact of this epidemic on diagnostic imaging exposure was therefore studied specifically for 2020, the year most affected by the epidemic. The number of procedures for the whole of 2020 is 10% lower than in other years, resulting in a reduction in the average annual dose per beneficiary of around 8% (1.44 mSv in 2020). ASNR Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2025 161 01 02 03 05 09 06 10 07 11 13 04 08 12 A / Z
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