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Nuclear waste history(5) Some radioactive elements like tritium and krypton-85 are very difficult and very expensive to trap. But the La Hague plant is permitted to discharge most if not all into the environment. Permission was granted by the Nuclear Safety Authority which oversees all installations. Its CEO is Andre-Claude Lacoste. Q: How are the discharges from La Hague site determined? A: It is a process in which the operator, in this case Areva, now writes us to explain what waste they would like to do. First we do a technical study using our technical back-up, the Nuclear Security Protection Institute (IRSN),  to verify if the request is technically reasonable or if the request corresponds to reasonable norms. A second study determines if the waste such as requested will have an impact on the populations of the area. We then try to set a waste authorisation level as low as possible , taking the 2 element into account. Q: When processing spent fuel, rare gases are released,...

Nuclear waste history(4) After numerous requests, we finally obtain a meeting with a top regional politician, Svetlana Kostina is deputy minister for nuclear safety in Chelyabinsk. This is a conversation with her. Q: Can we now live without danger near the river Techa? Svetlana Kostina : It's no longer dangerous to live near the Techa River. But all a along the river, river water cannot be used for farming. The people who live near the river have been informed. They follow these restrictions. Q: Shouldn't people be stopped from living there? Svetlana Kostina : Today, there are no legal reasons linked to radiation levels obliging us to evacuate. I've said so before: the radiation level dropped under the level set by international norms. So there is no legal reason to stop people from living there. So officially, there are no problems. In Muslimovo, the banks of the Techa are prohibited. But security is weak: people and cattle still use them. It's 75 tomes higher ...