2009 Status of Safety at AREVA group facilities
Alternatives #5: The renaissance of solar homes
Alternatives #4: Hydrocarbons, cocktails of the future
Alternatives #3: Geothermal modesty
Alternatives #2: Tomorrow's reactors
Alternatives #1: Energies, what scenario for 2050?
Quiz: Test what you know about sustainable development
Quiz: Checking on the state of the Earth
Game: Nuclear energy key words
Game: Energy Memory Game
Managing environmental risks
AREVA’s environmental policy evolved from a map of environment risks, stakeholder expectations, internal and external benchmarking, analysis of environmental reporting, and dialogue with the operating entities. The policy is based on six commitments. Through its environmental monitoring practices, AREVA is able to identify and assess all of its impacts.
An environmental policy rooted in strong commitments
The environmental policy rests on six commitments:
- manage,
- innovate,
- prevent risks,
- prevent environmental legacies,
- minimize the environmental footprint,
- measure and report.
It is broken down into the measurable objectives of cost reduction, risk reduction, and anticipating regulatory and/or customer requirements.
All of the group's major contributors are identified and help meet these objectives.
Reducing environmental impacts
Two types of risk are taken into account:
- The risks of accidents, which can affect people or their surroundings on or near the plant site:
Risks that could lead to accident scenarios are analyzed and ranked. Initially, the concept of risk reduction at the source is applied to avoid certain accidents to the extent possible. Then, additional prevention and protection barriers are developed for scenarios that remain physically possible in order to reduce their probability and severity to the maximum extent. - Chronic risks that could result from the release of pollution following treatment, from historic practices, or from the accumulation of compounds in the environment (in sediment, plants and animals):
Three types of studies are performed to assess these risks: the Health Risk Assessment (HRA), the Impact Study and Soil Diagnostics. Depending on the results of these studies, action plans are implemented to reduce the impacts of our operations (release reduction, deployment of use restrictions, containment or treatment of historical impacts).
