An inventory of territorial approaches to the management of domestic radon risks in france Difficulties, key successes and ways forward

International audienceDuring a decade, the French Institute of Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) has been involved in 2 territorial multi-partner approaches for the management of domestic radon risk. Their feedback showed the relevance and the innovative nature of the projects implemented to develop radon-awareness among the population, to encourage radon measurement and implementation of remediation work. The projects also show the importance of stimulating the commitment and the growing competence on radon of building professionals. Nevertheless, despite these positive feedback, the recurring issue remains the difficulty for the inhabitants to go beyond the measurement step. It appeared therefore necessary to obtain a global view of the territorial approaches carried out in France. In June 2020, IRSN started to inventory the approaches undertaken at the territorial level (in which IRSN was not involved directly), to describe them, identify their difficulties, solutions and key success es, ultimately aiming at promoting the sharing of regional experiences at a national level. Interviews were conducted in 11 regions with a wide range of stakeholders: regional/territorial public bodies (e.g. health, environment, ecological transition), NGOs and municipalities. The lack of building professionals has been confirmed as being the main difficulty for inhabitants; not only to undertake remediation action but also to provide building expertise that is a key step to identify these remediation actions. These deficits have led some territories to even stop their action on radon and others to adapt, notably by searching for new actors to ensure the-relay‖ of building expertise. Additional investigations on this topic have been conducted with support of CEPN (Nuclear Protection Evaluation Centre) to analyse the experiences of these new actors in relay and assess the possibility and conditions of the transferability of these approaches in other territories. This paper will present the results of the inventory of domestic radon management approaches in France, highlighting their difficulties, success factors, and also dress early perspectives for action