LES ACTIVITÉS NUCLÉAIRES : RAYONNEMENTS IONISANTS ET RISQUES POUR LA SANTÉ ET L’ENVIRONNEMENT from the installation. These models are specific to each licensee and are detailed in the facility’s impact assessment. During its assessment, ASNR devotes efforts to verifying that these models are conservative, in order to ensure that the impact assessments are not underestimated. In addition to the impact assessments produced on the basis of discharges from the facilities, the licensees are required to carry out environmental radioactivity monitoring programmes (aquatic environments, air, earth, milk, grass, agricultural produce, etc.), more specifically to verify compliance with the hypotheses used in the impact assessment and to monitor changes in the radioactivity level in the various compartments of the environment around the facilities (see point 5.1.1). The doses from BNIs for a given year are estimated on the basis of the actual discharges from each installation accounted for the year in question. This assessment takes account of discharges from the identified outlets (stack, river or sea discharge pipe), the diffuse emissions not channelled to the outlets (for example tank vent) and the sources of radiological exposure to ionising radiation present in the installation. The estimate is calculated, in accordance with the provisions of Articles R. 1333-23 and R. 1333-24 of the Public Health Code, for a “person representative” of the people most exposed within the population, except for those with extreme or rare habits and according to scenarios that are as realistic as possible. These scenarios take account of parameters specific to each site: distance from the site, meteorological data, etc. The differences observed from one site to another and from one year to another can to a large extent be explained by the use of these specific parameters. Table 11 shows the assessment of doses from BNIs calculated by the licensees. For each of the nuclear sites presented, the radiological impact remains far below, or at most represents about 1% of the limit for the public, this limit being 1 mSv per year. Therefore in France, the discharges produced by the nuclear industry have an extremely small radiological impact. The radiological impact of situations inherited from the past Legacy situations, such as atmospheric nuclear tests and the Chernobyl accident (Ukraine), can make a marginal contribution to population exposure. Thus, the exposure due to fall-out from nuclear tests is currently estimated at 2.3 μSv/year in metropolitan France (1.3 µSv/year for strontium-90 and 1 μSv/year for carbon-14; exposure linked to caesium-137 cannot be distinguished from that due to fall-out from the Chernobyl accident). The overall exposure due to fall-out from nuclear tests and the Chernobyl accident is 46 μSv/year for people living in areas of high persistence of this fall-out and 9.3 μSv/year for people over the rest of the country, that is to say an average dose per inhabitant of 12 μSv/year for the country as a whole (IRSN 2021). With regard to the fall-out in France from the Fukushima Daiichi NPP accident (Japan), the results published for France by IRSN in 2011 showed the presence of radioactive iodine at very low levels, resulting in estimated effective doses for the populations of less than 2 μSv/year in 2011. 5.1.3 – Monitoring within the European framework Article 35 of the EURATOM Treaty requires that the Member States establish the facilities needed to carry out continuous monitoring of the level of radioactivity in the air, water and soil and to ensure compliance with the basic standards of health protection for the general public and workers against the hazards of ionising radiation. All Member States, whether or not they have nuclear facilities, are therefore required to implement environmental monitoring arrangements throughout their territory. Article 35 also states that the European Commission (EC) may access the monitoring facilities to verify their operation and their effectiveness. During its verifications, it provides an opinion on the resources put in place by the Member States to monitor radioactive discharges from nuclear sites and radioactivity in the environment. It notably gives its assessment of the monitoring equipment and methodologies used and of the organisational setup. Since 1994, the EC has carried out about ten verification visits to different types of nuclear facilities in France (NPPs, “fuel cycle” plants, research centres, former uranium mines). No verifications were carried out in France in 2025. 5.2 Environmental monitoring In France, many parties are involved in environmental radioactivity monitoring: ∙the nuclear facility licensees, who perform monitoring around their sites; ∙ASNR (whose duties as defined by Article L. 592-1 of the Environment Code include participation in radiological monitoring of the environment), Ministries (General Directorate for Health, General Directorate for Food) and other public bodies involved in monitoring the national territory or specific sectors (foodstuffs controlled by the General Directorate for Food, for example); ∙the approved air quality monitoring associations (local authorities), environmental protection associations and Local Information Committees (CLIs). Generally speaking, the main objectives of environmental monitoring are to identify and track changes in the radiological and radio- ecological state of the environment, to help assess the impact of nuclear activities on health and the environment, to detect abnormal increases in radioactivity as early as possible, to ensure that those responsible for nuclear activities comply with regulations, and to contribute to transparency and public information. 5.2.1 – Environmental monitoring by ASNR The aim of monitoring environmental radioactivity is to determine the levels of exposure of the population to ionising radiation in the various environmental compartments. Initiated in France at the end of the 1950s to measure fallout from atmospheric nuclear testing, radiological monitoring of the environment subsequently evolved with the development of NPPs and the introduction of monitoring programmes around nuclear facilities. The Chernobyl accident in 1986 led to a strengthening of the early warning role of radiological monitoring, which resulted in the development of the Téléray network, dedicated to the realtime measurement of ambient gamma dose equivalent rate. The monitoring strategy implemented by ASNR is reviewed periodically to adapt it to current challenges, and set out in a regular monitoring plan that is revised annually. ASNR published the latest version of this plan in July 2025. The environmental monitoring carried out by ASNR throughout France focuses on three areas: ∙Regular radiological monitoring: the aim is to monitor discharges from nuclear facilities, assess the impact of these discharges on the environment, establish reference levels and characterise background radiation. The regular monitoring and surveillance plan is defined annually to take account of changes in nuclear activities, progress in sampling and metrology, results obtained in previous years and any radiological events. It covers all environmental compartments (aquatic, continental and marine, atmospheric, terrestrial, food) and the results of measurements carried out by 164 ASNR Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2025
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