Protection of the environnement

Protection. The environmental policy of the CNES/CSG management is displayed and formalises its commitment in these terms. The management is commited to:

- ‘Reinforcing consideration of the environment in its current and future activities;

- Controlling environmental risks, in particular by monitoring the impacts of the launcher in flight

   and the way  the establishment’s hazardous waste products are disposed of;

- Rationally using natural resources;

- Integrating these commitments into the ongoing process of improving its management system;

- Developing a true corporate culture for protection of the environment by ensuring that all

  CNES/CSG agents adopt its policy.’

However, protection of the environment first requires raising the awareness of all participants working on the base so that they change their daily habits. It concerns the whole base as it is a cross-cutting activity, which covers all CNES/CSG sites and all aspects related to the flight of the launcher and debris.

Industrial activity affects the environment every day, if only due to the continual road traffic, whether by generating waste products or pollutants. The study of sanitation risks on the Base undertaken by the Environment and Range Safety Department reporting to the Protection Sub-Directorate (SDP-ES) and submitted at the end of 2006 to the Permanent secretariat for preventing industrial pollution (SPPPI-Secrétariat Permanent de Prévention des Pollutions), revealed that workers on the base and a fortiori, the whole population, were living in a very healthy environment, both in Kourou and Sinnamary.

The combustion of solid propellant stages (EAP-Etages d’Accélération à Poudre) by the launcher in flight rejects different molecules into the atmosphere, mostly alumina and hydrochloric acid. There is a significant amount of fall-out of these products over the launch zone (within a radius of less than a kilometre) but it is only temporary. Beyond that range, only weak values are found. If ever the launcher explodes in flight, the destruction of the satellites would reject nitrogen peroxide and hydrazine products into the atmosphere. Up to now, none of the tests have shown any significant impact of Ariane 5 on the environment.