Caen (AFP)
The association for the control of radioactivity in the West (ACRO) denounced Wednesday a "contamination" radioactive drinking water of 6.4 million people in France.
"6.4 million people are fed with water contaminated with tritium" according to "data provided by the Ministry of Health," says the laboratory based in Hérouville-Saint-Clair, in the agglomeration of Caen, in a statement.
"No value exceeds the quality criterion of 100 Bq / L (Becquerel per liter) established by the health authorities," the association acknowledges.
According to the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), the technical arm of the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), "the public health code sets a reference quality of 100 Bq / L for tritium that does not represent not a health limit but a threshold which, when it is exceeded, leads to a complementary investigation to characterize the radioactivity of the water ".
In addition, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends "a guide value of 10,000 Bq / L for tritium in drinking water, to be considered in case of permanent consumption of water", according to the IRSN .
But "the regular presence in the water of the tritium faucet rejected by nuclear power stations shows a risk of contamination of other radioactive pollutants at much higher levels," argues ACRO.
"Tritium is + a whistleblower +: in the event of a serious accident on one of the nuclear power plants on the Seine, the Vienne, or the Loire, there will not be only tritium rejected and millions of people who may be deprived of drinking water, "says the laboratory.
The "exclusive map of the radioactive contamination of drinking water in metropolitan France" published by ACRO from the data of the Ministry, "reveals several areas with a regular presence of tritium in tap water", in particular along of the Seine, Vienne and Loire, "because of radioactive releases" of nuclear power plants, according to the statement.
According to the association, 268 municipalities are concerned, including "large cities" such as Orleans, Blois, Tours, Angers, Nantes, and 122 municipalities of Ile-de-France.
The only water purification plant in Choisy-le-Roi (Val-de-Marne) "distributes each year" in its drinking water at 10 Bq / L on average, 1.3 TBq (terabecquerel) of tritium, or 2.5% discharges from the Nogent-sur-Seine nuclear power plant ", according to ACRO, which supplies 1.9 million inhabitants in 56 municipalities in the southern and western suburbs of Paris, the association adds.
Reacting to ACRO's press release, the Criirad, another associative laboratory working on nuclear power, "denounced the trivialization of tritium contamination" and called on "not to be deceived by comparisons with the reference quality of 100 Bq / L and, moreover, with the sanitary limit of 10,000 Bq / L ".
"The authorities accept, for radioactive pollutants, levels of carcinogenic risk more than 100 times higher than the maximum tolerated for chemical carcinogens!", Says, in an email to AFP, the association based in Valencia for whom "the limit for sustainable contamination with tritium should not exceed 10 to 30 Bq / L ".
© 2019 AFP