FRANCE
The organization in France to deal with the legacy sites contaminated by radioactive substances, included by NORM, is composed of two public authorities (French nuclear safety Authority and the ministry of the Environment) and two public organizations with industrial and commercial activities (Andra and IRSN). Among these missions, Andra (the national radioactive waste management agency) is in charge, on behalf of the state, of the remediation  of the legacy site. A notice assigns a public interest’s task to Andra and define the responsibilities of each entity in the management of the remediation process.

The main principles to deal with these situations are:
- Apply the “polluter pays” principle,
- Prevent future pollution,
- Identify, monitor and manage the impact of the pollution,
- Put the polluted sites in a safe state,
- Remediation is as complete as possible,
- Manage the sites in accordance with their future / current uses,
- Retain a record of the pollution and of the remediation done in the past,
- Inform the public about the risks linked to these sites.

These principles are implemented through the legal framework (Environmental Chart in the French constitution and article L.110-1 for the code of the environment) guidance documents and are further developed in the nuclear safety Authority policy for the management of sites and soils polluted by radionuclides.
Legacy sites consist mostly of former radioactive waste disposals and NORM polluted sites and former sites where radium was used. The French government has launched a dedicated mission to treat the sites identified as being hosted with activities that used radium in the first half of the twentieth century (Marie Curie’s legacy). This operation has already shown up 30 polluted locations out of 250 diagnosis. Its total estimated budget (diagnosis, health monitoring, public information and rehabilitation) is 15,7 millions of euros.
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