Waste Technology Section

Decommissioning of Facilities


Facilitating the transfer of sustainable technologies for decommissioning of facilities

Responsible Officer : Michele LARAIA

Forthcoming Documents:

In the general field of decommissioning, a vast technical area deserving attention is related to the decision-making in decommissioning material/waste management and disposal, including clearance as one possible strategy, but also leaving alternative strategies open. One important element of the decision-making is the methodologies to evaluate and characterize material/waste in view of their cost-effective and safe management. The objective of TRS #462 - Managing Low Radioactivity Material from the Decommissioning of Nuclear Facilities is first to investigate factors relevant to release strategies for large amounts of decommissioning waste, including unrestricted or restricted release, or storage/disposal as radioactive or other waste; second, to define evaluation and characterization methodologies for the planning and implementation of such strategies; and third, to provide practical guidance on the flexibility and options offered by current management systems.

One particular concern in the local community of a facility to be decommissioned is the societal effects of plant shutdown. The decision to decommission brings uncertainties to the local community and may have a de-stabilizing effect on the local economy. Information on the experiences already obtained and the solutions found may be valuable to others who will be engaged in decommissioning projects in the future. Socio-economic impacts of decommissioning are dealt with in TRS#464 - Managing the Socio-Economic Impact of the Decommissioning of Nuclear Facilities.

It is important to preserve the information needed for assuring that decommissioning is conducted in a safe manner. This becomes a problem when delays in the decommissioning process are introduced after the facility is shut down and it could be a particular problem if a safe enclosure period of several decades is envisaged. It is evident that there is a need to make provisions to retain the most important information to facilitate future decommissioning. Experience from completed decommissioning projects can be used to establish the key information that would be needed to support this extended decommissioning activity. When it becomes evident that there will be significant delays between shutdown and the start of dismantling, arrangements must be put into place to ensure that the necessary information is preserved. This refers not only to the physical preservation of information, but to its legibility and the skills needed to understand the technical meaning and start action in due time. All the above-mentioned factors on related guidance are given in TRS #467 - Long Term Preservation of Information for Decommissioning Projects.

TRS #463 - Decommissioning of Research Reactors and Other Small Nuclear Facilities by Making Optimal Use of Available Resources was published recently. This technical report is intended to facilitate timely and efficient completion of decommissioning project for research reactors and other small nuclear facilities in that it highlights cost-effective technologies and planning methodologies and suggests ways to simplify and optimize the decommissioning process without compromising safety. This is particularly critical in MSs or institutions short of technical, financial and human resources at disposal of a decommissioning project. Addressing the decision - making process under such difficult circumstances is the focus of this report. A CD-ROM attached to this report includes the world˙s most comprehensive database on shutdown/decommissioned research reactors and critical assemblies, including information on decommissioning strategies, end-of-life inventories, status, occupational exposures during decommissioning, decommissioning waste inventories and amounts generated, and decommissioning costs.



Details of Technical Documents:

TRS No. 444: "Redevelopment of Nuclear Facilities after Decommissioning"

Planning for re-use options for decommissioned sites is an important aspect of the decommissioning process. Early planning for site re-use can facilitate the operation-to-decommissioning transition, reduce the financial burden associated to decommissioning, re-employ workers and specialist staff, and alleviate the overall impact of decommissioning on the local community. The lack of early planning for re-use of contaminated sites after completion of the decommissioning process is often a hindrance to implementing decommissioning in a timely and cost-effective manner. This strategic inadequacy may be caused by insufficient knowledge of worldwide experience on industrial and other site re-development opportunities that were exploited successfully.

TRS No. 444 "Redevelopment of Nuclear Facilities after Decommissioning" provides an overview of completed decommissioning projects worldwide followed by successful strategies to re-use decommissioned sites for new purposes as soon as the nuclear facility is de-licensed. Lessons learned from these projects and practical guidance on factors creating re-use opportunities is highlighted. Operators of nuclear facilities, decision-makers at government level, local authorities, and environmental planners are important stakeholders in the site re-development process. Click here for PDF.

Among nuclear facilities needing attention in decommissioning there are underground structures, systems and components (SSC) of the different facilities. These underground features require special consideration for the following reasons. Firstly, due to the poor accessibility of these features, there are significant difficulties in physical and radiological characterization, deployment of decontamination techniques, and implementing physical disassembly and removal activities. Secondly, these types of components are situated in a large number of nuclear installations. However, early nuclear design and construction practices often did not consider or incorporate eventual decommissioning requirements in their design considerations. Thirdly, the bibliography on nuclear decommissioning of underground or embedded components has not received yet any systematic coverage, despite some of the technical difficulties that have been encountered in actual projects to date. In fact, the bibliography on this subject is comprised of rather sketchy and sporadic case histories on this topic. A report approved for publication is intended to draw attention to a neglected field and to collate/condense sporadic information into an overview of important factors and practical guidance.

TRS No. 439: "The Decommissioning of Underground Structures, Systems and Components"

TRS No. 439 "The Decommissioning of Underground Structures, Systems and Components" is to identifies and describes state of the art technologies and strategies for the decommissioning of underground SSCs situated at nuclear facilities, including characterization, decontamination, dismantling and management of the resulting waste streams. Click here for PDF.

The unrestricted or restricted end-state of such facilities is also a point of interest. Specific examples of SSCs addressed by this report include:

TRS No. 446: "The Decommissioning of Research Reactors: Evolution, State of the Art, Open Issues"

TRS No. 446 "The Decommissioning of Research Reactors: Evolution, State of the Art, Open Issues" addresses a subject area that was dealt with earlier by two IAEA publications, namely, Planning and Management for the Decommissioning of Research Reactors and Other Small Nuclear Facilities (Technical Reports Series No. 351) and Decommissioning Techniques for Research Reactors (Technical Reports Series No. 373). This publication updates those reports in view of the technological progress, experience gained and the progressive ageing of research reactors, many of which have already reached the permanent shutdown stage and should be decommissioned soon. It is intended to contribute to the systematic coverage of the entire range of activities that have been addressed by the IAEA’s decommissioning work in past years. The perspective of the report is historical, in that relevant issues are identified as solved, pending, or emerging. Much of the information provided in this report will also be of use for the decommissioning of nuclear power plants and other nuclear facilities. Click here for PDF.