Sciences of dismantling

Dismantling is now a mature industrial activity, it involves different steps. The first step is the radiological characterisation of the work area in order to detect contamination and radioactive materials, the second step is the decontamination/separation activity and the last step is the management of the waste. Sciences of dismantling are dedicated to the development of new techniques or equipment that improve and optimize the different steps. Now a large panel of technologies and specific devices can be used: gamma/alpha cameras, 3D mapping of contamination, decontamination of soils through the growing of plants, the use of decontaminating gels that can be vacuumed away, or the development of robots and remote handling. (A.C.)