This paper & presentation describes how responsible management for health,safety and environment (HSE) is adequately addressed as part of modern practices for mining and processing projects involving naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM),from environmental baseline studies to projects initial plans for design and operation,environmental impact assessments,improvements of planned design & operation; project licensing and supporting HSE programmes; commissioning and operation and related further improvements,One of the key issues is that vendors and operators of industrial plants understandably tend to focus their effort on the hardware,engineering,process & operations (in other words on issues inside the plants) whereas public expectations tend to be the highest for issues like radiation.waste,discharges,etc.in relation to the environment (in other words issues outside the plants),Moreover,industrial players tend to excel at the generic level in designs and operations whereas public expectations tend to focus on local adaptation (for each site separately).A main risk for NORM projects is either that an insufficient local adaptation may create repeat delays of approval (or repeat operational issues) or that a too pronounced local adaptation can result in significantly reduced operational margins which can in turn contribute to degrade the efficiency of operations.There is often a functional gap between generic designs and operations,and the necessary local adaptation of proj ects which is important to address as it can otherwise result in significant inefficiency in proj ect approval and operation.The above also has implications on the way projects are shared-up and promoted.In brief,the days are gone when such projects were designed upfront from cradle to grave,fixed,and then successfully pushed forward for easy approval through various permitting procedures including more or less public consultation and the coverage of HSE aspects.Nowadays,the way projects are shaped and promoted as part of permitting procedures can make a big difference.N01 paying sufficient attention to this can at times lead to administrative road blocks for both new and on-going projects.Of course,the core of an efficient industrial or mining project needs to be well shaped by the project owner before getting into permitting and related public consultation/review.However,it is emphasized that a key part is about seeking,gaining and maintaining a good level of public support all along the life span of a project (easier to say than do).And for this,it is useful to complement the core of the project with options that are evaluated (with related justifications) and that are subject to a public consultation/review process.Preferred choices are then accounted for the options that are ultimately retained.Such a way helps gaining a good level of public empowerment and support in projects.This article/presentation should be particularly relevant for countries which are looking at starting-up industrial projects involving natural occurring radioactive materials (NORM).Sometimes,such projects event need to go through more comprehensive project licensing procedures (than the usual) that are up to international safety and environmental standards.This also plays a key part in building the necessary public support in such projects.