Saclay is authorized to release annually the following quantities of gaseous effluents: 555,000 GBq of tritium, 740,000 GBq of gases except for tritium, 18.5 GBq of halogens, and 37 GBq of aerosols; and, as for liquid effluents: 7,400 GBq of tritium, 37 GBq of beta emissions other than tritium, and 0.7 GBq of alpha emissions.

The Center is presently involved in renewal of its authorizations for releases. The authorizations “apply to each of the INB. But it is also a question of updating the over-all authorization of the center” [Rivasi 00].( The authorizations in effect date from 21 November 1978 [J.O. 22 December 1978].)

In regard to gaseous effluents, little progress has been made since 1995: releases add up to 89,910 GBq in 1995 and 95,460 GBq in 1998 for tritium; 64,380 GBq in 1995 and 71,780 GBq in 1998 for gases other than tritium; 0.5Gbq in 1995 and 0.4 GBq in 1998 for halogens; and 0.2 Gbq in 1995 and 0.1 Gbq in 1998 for aerosols.

The evolution for liquid effluents is more positive but still not satisfactory: 192.4 GBq in 1995 and 88.8 GBq in 1998 for tritium; 6.9 GBq in 1995 and 1.1 GBq in 1998 for beta emitters other than tritium; and less than 0.2 GBq in 1995 and less than 0.1 GBq in 1999 for alpha emitters [Rivasi 00].

A pond named Vieux receives rain water and liquid effluents from the center, which are carried by the Aqueduc des mineurs. According to Mme Rivasi’s report for the Office Parlementaire in 2000, the radioactivity of the sediments of this pond is “greater by a factor of 1.5 to 2.5 than that of the Saclay plateau.” In 1998, Crii-Rad expressed itself more pointedly. Indicating that the ponds of Saclay are classified in the inventory of Natural Zones of Interest for Ecology, Flora, or Fauna (ZNEIFF), the associations declared that the ponds are polluted by transuranians and various other radioactive products and that “the contamination of sediments [of Vieux pond] by plutonium is up to 400 times higher than the so-called ‘normal’ level” [Crii-Rad 98].

Water originating from the Center circulates through ponds all the way into the Bièvre River, which flows, underground now, through Paris and to the Seine. The application for authorization for releases presented by the Center in 1997-98, and reproduced by Claude Birraux, observed that “at the the level of the Bièvre, the radionuclide whose activity is the highest is tritium; yet its content is lower than 1/100 of its maximum admissible amount in water” [Birraux 96].

Birraux revealed that the ground water under Saclay contained a higher than normal proportion of tritium [Birraux 96]. “According to the information communicated to the CLI, the contamination of underground water by tritium has diminished little in the Saclay jurisdiction, since 1995” [Rivasi 00]. R. Birraux had found out that that “the contamination by tritium indeed originates directly from the current activities” of Saclay [Birraux 96].

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