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General actions

The Department of Technological Research of the CEA, consistent with its current security organization, has defined best practices for the prevention of risks associated with nanoparticles, based on the reports of:

  • CPP (“Comité de la Prévention et de la Précaution”) of the French Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development (2006),
  • AFSSET (“Agence Française de Sécurité Sanitaire de l'Environnement et du Travail”) from July 2008 to March 2010,
  • graduated management tool of nanomaterial specific risks of ANSES (“Agence Nationale de Sécurité Sanitaire de l’alimentation, de l'Environnement et du Travail”) (2011).

The solutions used by the CEA are presented for information, other approaches should also be considered. Plenty of documents concerning the best practices have been published in recent years, in particular by the INRS [Nanomatériaux: prévention des risques dans les laboratoires ED 6115 (2012)] in France.

Cartoons Episode 7

Prevention framework at CEA

For any new installation, the Local Security Commission is asked for authorization to start, on the basis of a safety report including:

  • the physical and chemical properties of nano-objects (nature, shape, size, etc.) and raw materials used (gas, liquid, solid, combustive, fuel, toxic, CMR, etc.),
  • the nature and frequency of processes implemented (grinding, synthesis, destructive or non-destructive testing, manufacturing, etc.),
  • the type of materials and equipment of work (hermetic area, vacuum area, oven, reactor, ventilated hood, glove box, sorbonne, etc.),
  • a transitional Phase with a particular risk: opening vacuum areas, oven, handling decanter pot, maintenance and cleaning devices, loading and unloading from the reactor, changing filter media, weighing materials in the form of powder, etc,
  • the nature and quantity of raw waste and scrap: liquid or solid, combustible or not, estimation in volume or weight.

This security report deals with the "nano" security risk without hiding the chemical, explosives and other risks of the materials used.