2022 highlights

The aim of this program is to encourage interaction between young people from the various organizations, to facilitate exchanges on their respective safety practices and approaches, and to help them expand their professional networks. The general theme of this 2022 edition was the spread of radioactive materials – at sea and in the atmosphere – and radioactive waste.

"The exchanges with JSP participants were very rich and relevant, during both the laboratory visit and the case study that we proposed to them on the impact of a radionuclide discharge. The point of such meetings is to compare different perspectives, on the link between expertise and research, on the dissemination of knowledge or on our research themes, since the approach to nuclear safety and radiation protection is not the same in all European countries." Denis Maro, Head of the Cherbourg Radioecology Laboratory in Cotentin.

The operating principle of the ITER international experimental reactor is based on the fusion of hydrogen atoms (deuterium and tritium) in a vacuum chamber.
In the event of loss of containment, the tritium resulting from the fusion would be released. To limit such a discharge, the amount of tritium contained in the beryllium dust emanating from the erosion of the walls of the ITER chamber would need to be reduced. Six scientists from IRSN and the University of Patras (Greece) have been working together since 2017 to determine the accumulation capacities of tritium within beryllium nanoparticles.
The Institute provides its know-how in condensed material physics, and the University its expertise in beryllium nanoparticles. Completed in 2022, this work provides IRSN with key information to assess the consequences of an accident within the ITER reactor: it reveals that the beryllium nanoparticles capture a larger quantity of tritium than would be suggested by the low solubility of tritium in solid metal. This result needs to be taken into account when monitoring this radioactive dust, or indeed when developing techniques to recover it.

The publication in June 2022 of the first annual report on transparency in animal research meets the fourth commitment of the Transparency Charter on the use of animals for scientific and regulatory purposes in France, signed by IRSN in 2021. As one of the 38 signatories committed to greater transparency in this area, the Institute has engaged to provide clear and comprehensive information on the reasons and conditions for the use of animal models, on the regulatory framework, and on the resulting scientific progress. This Charter is supported by Gircor, of which IRSN has been a member since 2007. 
This first report was drawn up on the basis of a questionnaire completed by each signatory. For this exercise, IRSN carried out a self-assessment in relation to its transparency policy, enabling it to identify strong points and areas for improvement. IRSN’s responses are in line with those of other signatories.

The potential ecological impact of new materials used in the context of industrial transformations, such as today’s energy transition, must be studied in order to identify the causal links between their implementation and the effects observed in the environment. In this respect, studying their trajectories within river systems provides valuable insights into the fate of the contaminants they generate. Indeed, rivers – receptacles for many substances, most of which are stored in the river sediments – make it possible to constitute “sedimentary archives” which demonstrate, a posteriori, the nature and levels of contamination of these environments.

Launched in 2020 for a period of four years with the funding of the National Research Agency (ANR), the TRAJECTOIRE project mobilizes seven universities and research institutes under the leadership of IRSN. By reconstructing the pathways of three families of contaminants (diverse radionuclides, microplastics, and certain rare metals used in high-tech) detected at the outlets of the major French drainage basins, the project aims to reconstruct the history of this pollution from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day, to establish the predictive trajectories of these contaminants, and to demonstrate the impact of political, economic and societal choices on the resilience of the environment.

2022 signals the completion of the stage of constituting the sedimentary archives covering the outlets of the seven major drainage basins of French rivers over the past 100 years, with more than 500 samples made available to the scientific community. This is an international first, paving the way for trajectory analysis of the contaminants studied. The project results are expected in 2024.

Launched in 2020 for a five-year period under the guidance of the German Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS), RadoNorm was created to improve the protection of the population against exposure to radon and materials containing naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM). In 2022, IRSN, a contributor to this project which mobilizes 56 partners from 22 countries, continued to work in partnership with the CSTB (Scientific and Technical Center for Building) to model the transport of radon from ground to building and estimate the radon concentration of indoor air.

The Cosmic on Air project was presented at C'SPACE, an event organized by CNES and Planète Sciences where young people and professionals gathered to indulge in a common passion: Space, from July 16 to 23 in Tarbes (Hautes-Pyrénées). At an OpenRadiation/Cosmic on Air stand at this event, participants got the chance to discover this participatory science project backed by the Institute. The aim of this project is to improve assessment, among other things, of exposure to cosmic radiation on board an aircraft. Visitors were able to make measurements using the sensors provided. Cosmic on Air draws on the experience and tools developed as part of the OpenRadiation collaborative project, which involves collecting measurements on the ground.

In addition to this, the annual OpenRadiation Community Day took place, online, on April 8, 2022 on the theme of “measurement without borders”, and featuring video interviews of OpenRadiation project leaders in Europe. Our website was also overhauled this past year, a project initiated through participatory workshops conducted with IRSN Lab.