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A ministerial decree that went unnoticed when it was published last May makes it possible to use low-level radioactive waste in the manufacture of everyday objects.
Use radioactive waste for the construction of houses or cars: in an era which puts forward ecological materials and electric vehicles, the hypothesis would seem almost far-fetched. And yet ... A ministerial decree of 5 May 2009, published in the "Official Journal" of 14 May, clearly authorizes the use of weakly radioactive substances in certain consumer goods and construction products. Specifically, this text, which went unnoticed, established a procedure for derogating from the Public Health Code, which until now had prohibited such "recycling" of radioactive waste.
"This decree goes against all official texts which prohibit the dilution of radioactive waste in the environment", affirms Roland Desbordes, the president of the Commission for Research and Independent Information on Radioactivity (Criirad), l association which has raised this hare and is campaigning for the outright repeal of the decree. Five families of products may not be subject to exemptions: food, cosmetics, ornaments, toys and materials in contact with food and water. This means that all other categories are likely to contain radioactive waste.
Despite the unfavorable opinion of ASN
The nuclear industry, Roland Desbordes point, produces a “colossal tonnage” of low-level radioactive waste, particularly scrap and plastics. Due to their very low radioactivity, this waste is not handled by the National Agency for Radioactive Waste Management (ANDRA) and the nuclear industry is forced to store it. In the past, companies have already been singled out for trying to illegally dispose of these bulky stocks. In 2004, for example, the Lyon administrative court had forced a company to abandon its plan to manufacture tractor components from contaminated metal. “If we let businesses do it, the building sector can allow them to recycle a large amount of waste. Concrete from dismantled facilities can be ground to make cement that can be found in homes. I do not want there to be at home! It would also go against current recommendations in terms of cancer prevention, "warns the president of Criirad, whose director general must be received Monday by the cabinet of Jean-Louis Borloo, the Minister of Ecology . After having challenged the government, the association brought appeals before the Council of State, "which asked for explanations from the various ministries which signed the decree", namely the ministries of Ecology, Health, Housing and the Economy, who seem in no rush to respond. The most disturbing thing is that the Nuclear Safety Authority itself, in November 2008, gave an unfavorable opinion to the draft order, a recommendation which the government ultimately did not take into account. ASN's opinion was based in particular on “France's constant position in the management of nuclear waste (...) avoid the dilution of waste as a disposal mechanism, in particular by adding it to consumer goods ”.
Benoit GAUDIBERT
This is what will please Jonule