Radiation protection and human health and environment
Second progress report on the chronic contamination to low-level radionuclides (ENVIRHOM)
16/03/2006
IRSN publishes the second progress report of the ENVIRHOM programme, with the first results obtained for uranium, for both 'Environmental' and 'Health' aspects. ENVIRHOM is aimed at bringing together human health and environmental specialists to observe the effects of very low-level chronic exposure to radionuclides.
Nuclear safety
Specific agreement signed with CNRS-LATP
09/02/2006
On February 9, 2006, IRSN's Fires, Corium and Containment Department (SEMIC) signed a cooperation agreement with LATP, a CNRS-University of Provence joint laboratory, specialising in analysis, topology and probabilities.
The agreement concerns the study of numerical methods for solving fluid mechanics problems, including:
- methods for solving Navier-Stokes equations for incompressible or low-Mach-number flows,
- numerical methods for simulating fires,
- numerical methods for simulating two-phase flow, either directly (using diffuse-interface models) or on a macroscopic scale, after calculating an average,
- schemes for solving hyperbolic systems, in particular for simulating shallow flows (radionuclide transport in rivers and estuaries).
Collaboration
Framework agreement signed with ENS Cachan
15/12/2005
On December 15, 2005, IRSN signed a framework agreement for scientific cooperation with the ENS higher education institute in Cachan. The agreement provides for cooperation with several ENS laboratories. Work with LMT (laboratory of mechanics and technology) will focus on the mechanics of solids and structures, experimental aspects of materials, numerical simulation and structural computing in the fields of mechanical engineering, materials, civil engineering and the environment. With CMLA (centre for mathematics and its applications), IRSN will study applied analysis (applied to physics, geometry and mechanics), applied probabilities (combinatorial optimisation, image analysis), wavelets, numerical analysis, scientific computing, modelling, control theory and some questions related to parallel computing. Lastly, work with the Institut d'Alembert will focus on physics, chemistry, biochemistry and, in particular, molecular photonics and its applications in the related fields of information technology and biotechnology.
Radiation protection and human health
Occupational exposure to ionizing radiation
18/01/2006
IRSN has just published its annual report on occupational exposure to ionizing radiation. Collective doses have been falling since the late 1990s and this year is no exception, although slight variations can be seen from one sector of activity to another.
Radiation protection and environment
Pollutants under surveillance
10/01/2006
At the end of 2005, the Mediterranean Mussel Watch, the network set up for the surveillance of radioactive pollutants (and of Cs137 in particular) around the Mediterranean coast and the Black Sea, completed its first technical stage, in the form of an exercise in the intercomparison of measurements. Conceived in 2002 by the International Commission for the Scientific Exploration of the Mediterranean Sea (CIESM) and coordinated by the IRSN, surveillance carried out by this new network is based on analysis of the Mytilus galloprovincialis mussel as the unique bioindicator. Furthermore, in order to be able to correctly analyse and compare the results of the measurements provided by the various laboratories that form the network, it needs to know the comparable technical characteristics of all the laboratories involved.
Thanks to this, it has been possible to perform the intercomparison exercise, coordinated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) laboratory in Monaco: the 15 laboratories that are members of the network (plus the 15 IAEA reference laboratories) performed gamma and alpha spectrometric measurements on the same reference sample. These initial measurements have been fed into the network’s database, which will be available on the Net and regularly updated with surveillance data. In 2006, the network will continue to expand, in geographic terms, across the Mediterranean, in particular by transplanting mussels to areas where the species is rare (Syria, Israel, Egypt and Tunisia).
Nuclear safety
Agreement signed between the IRSN and the LCPC
09/12/2005
On 12 December 2005, the IRSN and the LCPC (Laboratoire central des ponts et chaussées - the French Public Works Research Laboratory) signed an agreement on scientific and technical cooperation. Within the framework of this agreement, it will be possible to develop various topics for potential joint research, concerning structural analysis, particularly of concrete: the behaviour of civil engineering materials, seismic risks, structural reinforcement processes and underground structures. A first, specific, agreement concerning coupling, cracking and creep of concrete in tension is also in the process of being signed. This latter action is being developed within the framework of the Nanthilde Reviron‘s IRSN/DSR/SAMS/BAGS thesis.
