The Institute’s scientific sectors

The Institute's skills are organized according to a “scientific professions” approach.
This “professions” approach structures the Institute's teams according to scientific discipline (chemistry, physics, ecology, mathematics, geology, sociology, etc.) and the subject to which the discipline is applied (environmental chemists do not work on the same topics as process chemists, for example). 
This technical approach aims to promote a multidisciplinary approach to risk, which is the added value of INERIS's work.
For example, the Institute is able to support the safety of new energy sectors by addressing environmental risks from different angles. In the field of methanization, for example, the Institute is working on the risk of gas explosions (accidental risk) and the impact of emissions produced by digestate (chronic risk). Its experts are studying corrosion issues (accidental risk) and emissions control (chronic risk) in biorefineries. In the context of underground hydrogen energy storage, INERIS is interested in the explosion risks (accidental risk) associated with the safety of access wells and underground reservoirs (soil/subsoil risk).

Chronic risk

The scope of INERIS's expertise in chronic risk can be understood through the common expression “chronic disease,” which refers to a disease “whose symptoms appear slowly, last for a long time, and sometimes become permanent.” Chronic risk expertise therefore refers to INERIS's skills relating to the long-term and “low-dose” aspects of risk. Whether exposure is single or repeated over time, the hazard is characterized by highly variable intensity, generally low, with effects that appear after a latency period and last for a long time. In the field of environmental risks, chronic risk applies to risks to human health and to the integrity of natural environments and biodiversity. In the context of the Institute's activities, chronic risk and accidental risk, which are not overlapping, are addressed by different and complementary disciplines. Expertise in chronic risk covers a wide range of scientific fields: analytical chemistry, toxicology/ecotoxicology, ecology, atmospheric physics and chemistry, biology, botany, economics, etc.

The Institute's expertise is based on knowledge of chemicals present in the environment (and of a physical agent, electromagnetic fields). They cover the measurement of substances in the environment (quantification and characterization), their properties that are hazardous to humans and the environment, their behavior (transfer, transformation, etc.) in natural environments (air, water, soil, etc.), how humans and ecosystems are exposed to them, and their impacts on human health and living organisms (aquatic and terrestrial). This broad expertise gives INERIS expertise in all aspects of the risks that chemical pollution can cause, including the cost-benefit analysis of pollution prevention.

Soil and Subsoil Risk

INERIS's expertise in soil/subsoil risk falls within the field of geosciences: geomechanics, geology, geotechnics, hydrogeology, geochemistry, etc. It is an accidental risk in terms of its characteristics, but it has a specific feature that distinguishes it from accidental risk in the industrial and technological sense: it is not solely anthropogenic (i.e. caused by human activities). Economic activities involving the exploitation of the subsurface (mining, quarrying, etc.) can create conditions conducive to the occurrence of dangerous natural phenomena (land movement, flooding, etc.).

INERIS has therefore developed expertise in “ground movement” phenomena that affect the exploitation of the ground and subsoil: cavity collapse, rock slides and rockfalls, soil settlement or swelling, and induced seismicity. These phenomena have in common that they are the product of so-called “gravitational” effects, linked to the phenomenon of Earth's attraction, which are at the heart of Ineris' expertise. Gravitational effects propagate either from the bottom up (cavity collapse or ground subsidence) or from the top down (landslides and rockfalls).

Ineris' expertise in ground movement applies to all underground economic activities and, by extension, to new forms of underground exploitation: energy storage, CO₂ capture, transport and storage, geothermal energy, etc. Beyond economic activities, the Institute is also involved in addressing ground movement risks, particularly “cavity” risks, as part of natural risk prevention. The risk issues are similar in both economic and urban development contexts.