Risk

A plant that generates electricity by using the heat released by the nuclear fuel. This heat heats water and produces steam which drives turbines and consequently alternators. In normal operation, a plant releases radioactive liquids and gas, which can be found in aquatic environments, after treatment of water used for cooling installations (demineralisation, chlorination). On the other hand, the water used in the cooling circuits is hot when it is discharged into the river or the sea, which again can alter the functioning of the ecosystems.

A storm management basin for the temporary storage of runoff water to protect homes and structures during periods of heavy rain.

Persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic substance, or considered, at an equivalent level, as questionable.

Phenomenon characterized by a more or less abrupt rise in the level of a watercourse, related to a flow growth. Flood is not always an overflow of the riverbed. Floods are also characterized by their return period: the five-year flood (frequency one year out of 5 - Return period 5), the ten-year flood (frequency one year out of 10 - Return period 10), the hundred-year flood (frequency, one year out of 100 - return period 100). Seasonal floods are natural phenomena. They are essential to maintaining the diversity of water systems and services provided by nature.

Designates a generalized depression in the bottom of a stream, resulting from regressive erosion or progressive erosion.

Substance capable of having a specific toxic effect on the body: carcinogenic effect (C), mutagenic effect (M), toxic effect to reproduction (R), either by disrupting the function of reproduction, or by causing anomalies and malformations of the embryo.

Violent swell of the sea caused by sudden underwater tectonic disturbances: earthquake, underwater collapse, etc. The waves thus generated propagate at high speed (several hundred km/h) with wavelengths of several kilometres and can have amplitudes of several tens of metres, causing major damage to the coastline they strike.