Examples of innovating maritime actions in Basse Normandie

More than 400 kilometers of littoral

“Effective operations in ports”

EFFORTS

European FP-6 DG Research Integrated Project

"Effective Operations in Ports" aims to improve the competitiveness of European port operations and the quality of the ports labour conditions and market, being a prominent one in coastal regions.

Commencing 1st May 2006 and lasting for 36 months EFFORTS, research and development will focus on three scopes of application:

•Navigation in Ports

•Ports and Environment

•Port Organisation

EFFORTS

EFFORTS

Leader : University of Caen

What is a ballast ?

Inside a Ballast tank Interior of a Ballast

A muddy oxidized environment of difficult access

Ballast : any material used to weight and/or balance an object.

Ballast water is therefore water carried by ships to ensure stability,trim and structural integrity.

Topside

Hold used as ballast when filled with water

Double bottom

“Ballast waters pollutions during ships reception"

Ballast water of the ships vector of spreading of unwanted species :

- Invasive - noxious - pathogenic

60% of the world shipment of goods are done by sea (approximately 35.000 ships : 10 billion tons of water from ballast each year in the world (22 million released in french ports)

The livingspecies travelling by the way are estimated at 7000 per day in the world

“Ballast waters pollutions during ships reception"

High temperature thermal treatmentDe oxygenationUltraviolet lightUltrasoundOzoneOxicide treatmentAdvanced oxidation technology

The ballast water treatment technologies tested were during MARTOB Program

Principal results of MARTOB The treatments appear effective on zooplancton.

The tests did not succeed in showing the effectiveness of the treatmentson the phytoplancton.

The results on bacteriology are not conclusive.

EFFORTS Tests of active substances

"Aluminium pollution related to the protection of ports infrastructures/quay".

Example of Le Havre harbour (Normandy)

10 harbour works on cathodic protection (Al sacrificial anodes)

356 T of anodes for 15 years

24T of Al per year is dissolved in marin waters

Sacrificial anodes are used in cathodic protection to prevent steel structures (immersed pipe, ships, harbour works, ballast water tanks) exposed to sea water from corrosion

In most of cases, anodes are composed by ZINC and ALUMINIUM

Aluminium is not recognized as a toxic substance, and acts as an indicating parameter that can be exceeded....

According to various researchers, the toxicity of aluminium for the brain cannot be denied.

"There is a lack of information on the subject ... We do not have scientific bases proving the toxicity of this metal" (W.H.O secretary, 1997).

Ports need to be given realistic information regarding the toxicity of aluminium, to know if aluminium can enter the food chain and if concentrations are dangerous or not for human health

"Aluminium pollution related to the protection of ports infrastructures/quay".

Radioecology Laboratory

Activities :

Determining changes in radioactivity levels in coastal, offshore, and terrestrial environments.

Monitoring the behaviour and fate of environmental radionuclides, and determining how they might be transferred to humans.

Studying the dispersal of radioactive elements in the Channel and North Sea, in particular, those released by the spent fuel reprocessing plants at La Hague (France) and Sellafield (United Kingdom), as well as nuclear power plants.

Determining the contribution of various sources of artificial radioactivity (industry, fallout from atmospheric weapons testing, fallout from the Chernobyl accident).

Modeling mechanisms governing radioactive transfer to the environment.

The existing hydrodynamic models with the IRSN make it possible to simulate in a realistic way dispersion of soluble substances in marine environment.

These models use the hydrodynamic code Mars developped at the point with IFREMER, it were adapted and validated with the IRSN by soluble measurements of radio-tracers (more than 15000). Their fields of validity and their precision are known.

They can be used to reconstitute or to envisage to become to it industrial wastes or to study to become to it pollutants within the biological and sedimentary compartments of the marine environment

A tool for maritime secutity

                                                                                                                                                

Shipwreck of ECE

10 000 tons of phosphoric acide

Dispersion simulation of accidental phosphoric acid rejection Ece ship in 2006

Thank you for your attention