Areva - Reference Document 2016

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SOCIAL, ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIETAL RESPONSIBILITY

2. Environmental information

Operations to clean up the Miramas site were finished on October 31, 2015. Operating units such as the washing station and the unit to remove explosives contamination are winding down, and the site is in the final clean-up phase. The corresponding work completion reports were sent to the prefecture for review and approval. The site is now working with local partners to examine its sale and reindustrialization. No operations were conducted at the site in 2016, except for the winding down of the UDT and the dismantling of the related building, which are subject to a legal proceeding.

Concerning the asbestos risk, the group’s asbestos directive was revised in 2014 to factor in regulatory changes and operating experience from the sites, and was deployed in 2015. Since September 2008, the carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic substances directive (CMR) has applied to all sites where the Group is the principal operator. Of the two sections in the directive, one deals with managing workstation risk, while the other addresses environmental risk management. The objectives of the directive include identifying and eliminating all class 1A and 1B CMRs if it is technically and economically feasible to do so, and ensuring the traceability of employee exposure through measurement and follow-up. Prevention of Legionnaires’ disease is also a priority for the entities involved, particularly as concerns domestic hot water systems. Each site manages the prevention of more specific noise, olfactory, light and visual pollution locally as a function of local issues (such as whether or not there are residences close to the sites) and constraints, and regulatory requirements. TECHNOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL HAZARDS The French law of July 30, 2003 on the prevention of risks of technological and natural origin and on compensation for damages, together with its implementing regulations, introduced a new tool for controlling urban development around the Group’s three “high threshold” Seveso sites in France: the defluorination facility at the AREVA NC Tricastin site, the conversion facilities of AREVA NC Malvési and Tricastin, and the AREVA NP Jarrie site. Called the Technological Risk Prevention Plan (TRPP), the tool is used to reduce risks, deal with existing situations, plan for the future and stimulate dialogue with stakeholders, including local governments. In accordance with AREVA’s second environmental policy goal, the focus is on the prevention and management of environmental hazards, particularly operational risks, based on periodic updates to the hazards analyses for the industrial sites (see Section 4.4.2.1. Seveso regulations ). Land use AREVA’s industrial and mining operations use land. While the land use of its main industrial operations remains practically unchanged throughout the Group, the land use of its mining operations depends directly on themining technologies employed: an underground mine requires little land compared with an open-pit mine, which requires a larger land area. Roads and related supply systems to the facilities may also influence land use. AREVA is aware of these issues and tries to minimize them. In addition, it is important to include the operating cycle in land management efforts. Rehabilitation at the end of operations will condition the return to a state of equilibrium. In France, wheremining operations ceased nearly 15 years ago, AREVA manages about 250 former mining sites representing some 14,000 hectares of land. Former mines are reclaimed and replanted to limit the residual impacts and integrate the sites into the natural landscape while restoring habitat for different species, in harmony with the natural environment and in agreement with the local stakeholders. An inventory of these sites shows that nearly half of the land occupied andmanaged 2.2.4.

CONSIDERATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL STRESS AND CHRONIC HAZARDS

2.2.3.

A nuclear facility’s environmental impact study is updated at each stage of its lifecycle, i.e. upon its creation, modification, shutdown and dismantling. Such studies seek to characterize the potential health effects and environmental impacts of stresses and releases from the facility in question. They include chemical hazards assessments which focus on the neighboring population that might be chronically exposed to facility releases. They are carried out based on normal facility operating scenarios, both in France and abroad, and factor in different potential exposure paths to the neighboring populations in approaches that are as realistic as possible. They are repeated at each material modification of the facilities, based on the latest available scientific knowledge. Environmental impact studies using risk assessment methods are also used to prevent environmental hazards (protection of plant and animal life). These studies are performed for each new facility and for each notable change in existing facilities. For the latter, environmental monitoring regulations also include specific measures to assess their impact on the environment, such as monitoring of radiological and/or chemical markers in different environmental matrices, supplemented as necessary by measures for eco-monitoring of plant and animal life. The Tricastin site, for instance, added ecological monitoring measures to its environmental monitoring program specific to local ecological issues (periodic inventories and standardized ecological indices).

2.3. ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE

SUSTAINABLE USE OF RESOURCES, LAND AND RAW MATERIALS

2.3.1.

Sustainable use of resources To minimize its environmental footprint, the group acts to reduce withdrawals from the natural environment and its consumption of materials and energy, and continually searches for opportunities to recycle waste. In the projects, AREVA’s eco-design approach contributed to the early identification of the environmental impacts of major projects and thus to optimization efforts, in particular as concerns projects in theMining, Chemistry/Enrichment and Recycling Business Units, with support from the group’s engineering companies. Concrete examples of projects contributing to the sustainable use of resources by limiting the consumption of raw materials are presented in the following sections on energy management at AREVA, on the reduction of water usage and on management of the group’s waste.

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2016 AREVA REFERENCE DOCUMENT