The Association for the Control of Radioactivity in the West (ACRO) announced on Tuesday an "abnormally high" radioactive "contamination" of the Loire in Maine-et-Loire, "downstream of five nuclear power plants".

The Association for the Control of Radioactivity in the West (ACRO) announced on Tuesday an "unusually high" radioactive "contamination" of the Loire at Saumur, Maine-et-Loire, "downstream of five nuclear power plants" .

The presence of tritium (radioactive hydrogen) is almost systematic both in the river and in drinking waters.In January 2019, the concentration in the water of the Loire has reached 310 Bq / L, alert laboratory based in Hérouville-Saint-Clair, near Caen in a joint communique with the Réseau Sortir du nucléaire.

Contaminated river water at each sampling since December

"Is this due to an incident? The Loire Vienne Zéro Nucléaire collective and ACRO alert the authorities and request an investigation to determine the origin of this exceptional value," add the associations. On the Loire, "the tritium is present on nearly 400 km, between Dampierre-in-Burly and Nantes", adds ACRO in its analysis report of samples taken from December 2017 to May 2019. In Châtellerault, "on the river and consumer waters have been contaminated with tritium each month since December, up to 50 becquerels per liter (Bq / L), the Civaux nuclear power plant is responsible for this, "they say. they.

#Saumur. The concentration of #radioactive hydrogen is increasing in #Loirehttps: //t.co/4KexkbiUC7 via @courrierouest

- ACRO (@__ACRO__) June 18, 2019

A lack of data on the carcinogenic effects of tritium?

According to the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), "the public health code sets a reference quality of 100 Bq / L for tritium, which does not represent a health limit but a threshold that, when is exceeded, involves a complementary investigation to characterize the radioactivity of the water ". And the World Health Organization recommends "a guideline value of 10,000 Bq / L for tritium in drinking water, to be considered in case of permanent consumption of water".

According to the Institute, technical arm of the nuclear policeman, tritium levels "usually observed" in surface waters are, outside any source of tritium emission, from 1 Bq / L to a few Bq / L. This rises to "from a few Bq / L to several tens of Bq / L downstream of nuclear power stations", and "from a few tens to a few hundred Bq / L around certain installations (CEA centers of Marcoule and Valduc, Orano site of the Hague) ".

At #Saumur, downstream of the five nuclear power plants on #Loire and #Vienne, there is an almost systematic presence of #tritium in the river and drinking water. In January 2019, the concentration in the water of the Loire reached 310 Bq / L. # Nucléairehttps: //t.co/jlWT5Z2D0e

- ACRO (@__ACRO__) June 18, 2019

In a report requested by the National Association of Local Nuclear Information Commissions, a CNRS scientist concluded in 2010 that the "radiation protection authorities" "underestimated" the "toxicity" of tritium, the only radioelement whose permitted releases increase in France. Moreover "lack of data" on "carcinogenic effects of tritium (...) is blatant", according to this report.