Opinion polls regularly raise the subject of nuclear waste as being a matter of concern for the French public. It is reasonable to ask what impact nuclear waste storage facilities have on public health and the environment. Considering that discharges into the environment form an integral part of the wastes produced by nuclear installations, the present report begins by noting the wastes discharged from and stored at the different types of installation: waste and mining spoil storage centres, reprocessing plants and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) centres. Studies of how these installations affect public health and the environment are then reviewed. Finally the report examines the scientific and technical advances necessary together with the legal and institutional improvements that the present situation merits. As far as discharges into the environment are concerned, the report proposes particular topics that deserve investigation if a strategy of dilution and dispersion is gradually to be replaced by a strategy of concentration-retention in the form of solid wastes. In this connection, although the law of 30 December 1991 laid down the basis of the effective management of wastes of high or intermediate activity, the situation is different for wastes of low or very low activity, and the report stresses the importance of introducing systems that are adapted to each category of waste. Finally the report deals with the transfer into national legislation of the new European Directive No. 96/29 on radiation protection, and proposes guidelines for the two important questions of the release and exemption thresholds. Besides these important but specific matters, the report marshals the arguments in favour of setting up a national radioactive waste management scheme that would improve the transparency and overall effectiveness of the initiatives taken by the public authorities and the different operators.