Areva - Reference Document 2016
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SOCIAL, ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIETAL RESPONSIBILITY
2. Environmental information
mining sites and facilities, nuclear facility dismantling, radioactive waste retrieval and packaging, final waste disposal, routine cleanup, and pollution control and reclamation of industrial sites and mines. Nuclear facility dismantling and waste retrieval and packaging accounted for, 7.342 billion euros of this amount, 7.215 billion euros of which are borne by AREVA (Section 20.2. Notes to the consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2016 , Note 13. End-of-lifecycle operations of this Reference Document).
AREVA continues its efforts in this area. A new phase of the circular economy has begun with major operators in the nuclear industry, in particular to recycle a maximum amount of certain resources from dismantling, such as steel.
AMOUNT OF PROVISIONS AND GUARANTEES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS
2.1.3.
Provisions and guarantees related to the group’s end-of- lifecycle obligations and environmental hazards Provisions totaling 7.614 billion euros had been set aside as of December 31, 2016 for environmental hazards, including the dismantling and rehabilitation of
2.2. ENVIRONMENTAL RISK PREVENTION AND MANAGEMENT
2.2.1. BIODIVERSITY PROTECTION AND DEVELOPMENT AREVA pays close attention tomonitoring and preserving biodiversity. The protection of plant and animal life begins in the design phase and continues throughout the facility operating period and into site rehabilitation. Special care is devoted to native species and to how species introduced during reclamation adapt to the local biotope (habitat for plant and animal life). As early as 2006, AREVA began an in-depth review of interactions between its operations and biodiversity, supplemented with an “AREVA and biodiversity” report. The conclusion was that, as for all industrial activities, the group’s sites: p benefit from all of the ecosystemic services offered by biodiversity (resources, climate regulation, regulation of effluents, etc.); p contribute as a consequence of their activities to biodiversity erosion (waste production, greenhouse gas emissions, use of resources, dividing up of existing ecosystems). AREVA integrated this theme into its environmental policy with the goal of avoiding, reducing and if necessary offsetting the impacts of its operations on biodiversity. Comprehensive mapping showed that the main impacts on biodiversity from the group’s facilities came from the mining operations and from the operations of some sites with significant environmental aspects. After work involving international biodiversity experts, AREVA developed a tool to assess interactions between the group’s operations and biodiversity. Usable by each site, the tool offers a means for raising employee awareness, methods for assessing the impacts on biodiversity, and a guide for setting up action plans. In addition, to gain a better grasp of local biodiversity challenges, targeted ecological inventories were taken at the major industrial sites. The most important of these concerned the Tricastin site. The inventories provide a clear picture of existing biodiversity at the site and were used to create maps of the ecological issues associated with the preservation of remarkable species. More generally, the group strives to continually reduce the environmental footprint of its facilities andmore specifically to take simultaneous action on the fivemechanisms known to erode biodiversity. The main actions undertaken involve combatting climate change and the proliferation of invasive species, managing risks related to p use the natural environment;
changes in land use and to the potential impacts of releases and other industrial pollution, and working towards the sustainable use of natural resources.
2.2.2. SOIL MANAGEMENT AREVA’s environmental policy for the 2013-2016 period carries on from the policies of previous years, whose objectives are to reduce and manage all of our environmental liabilities. In particular, it stresses greater efforts to prevent the risks of accidents, chronic risks and risks related to facility aging. These risks can in fact lead in some cases to the creation of environmental liabilities. On February 6, 2014, AREVA NC filed a license application with the Frenchministry in charge of nuclear safety for the dismantling of INB 105 at the Tricastin site. ASN and its technical expert IRSN are reviewing the application. At the same time, a similar application was filed for INB 93 (Eurodif gaseous diffusion uranium enrichment plant), also to proceed with its dismantling. ASN and its technical expert IRSN are reviewing both applications. At former Frenchmining sites, the campaign to inventory mine tailings and to search for the presence of radon in and around homes is continuing on schedule. As of the end of 2015, a total of 71 residential houses had been identified in the immediate vicinity of places where mine tailings had been reused, along with another 530 residences further away from the mine tailings. Accordingly, 588 radon kits were sent to the owners of the houses in order to take measurements during the winter months, when radon accumulates more easily in homes due to poor ventilation. Following the completion of cleanup and dismantlingwork at the SICN site in Annecy in 2013, prefectural permits for monitoring and public service were issued to the site on July 1, 2014. Currently, the site hosts a mechanical machining company which conducts its operations in the remaining rooms, a warehousing and maintenance workshop where the former uranium foundry was located, and the biomass boiler built by IDEX in the southwestern part of the site, which has provided heating for a number of individual houses and municipalities since the beginning of the year. At the Veurey site, SICN has filed applications to decommission the two regulated nuclear facilities; the application for institution of public easements of March 2014 is still under review by the nuclear safety authority ASN. Actions aimed at the complete reindustrialization of the site continue.
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2016 AREVA REFERENCE DOCUMENT
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