Proposal for a nuclear power-plant ship decommissioning

The goal of this work is to review decommissioning methods for nuclear propulsion ships throughout of survey on decommissioning experience. Governmental regulation typically dictates cleanup of a decommission site. It is satisfying the stringent regulations that prove to be a primary cost driver for decommissioning and waste disposal. Reactor types and sizes, the number of reactors on an individual plant site, and labor costs are among the main factors affecting costs. Thus, it is so important to develop a good recycling policy after nuclear-power plant ship inactivation. This work found that adequate requirements identification must keep economics always in the center of design. Experience shows, except after major catastrophic accidents, nuclear industry may earn public trust by open dialogue with the population and sound engineering practices, searching for right technical solution and great planning for long time. To achieve this goal, this work proposed the following method: firstly, it presents the characteristics of nuclear-powered submarines. Secondly, an approach concerning the decommissioning process of nuclear-powered submarines adopted by the US Navy, Russian Navy, Royal Navy, French Navy and others which brings the past experience on this field, providing some information on history, architectures and hints of reasons for the success or failures of each project. Finally, this works compared the decommissioning processes of these navies under the perspective of the nuclear regulatory process. (author)