Safe decommissioning for nuclear activities. Proceedings of an international conference

Thousands of operations involving the use of radioactive substances will end during the current century.While there is considerable regulatory experience in the 'front end' of the regulatory system for practices, the experience at the 'back end' is more limited as fewer practices have actually been terminated. When a practice is terminated because the facility has reached the end of its useful life, action has to be taken to ensure the safe shutdown of the facility and allow the removal of regulatory controls.There are many issues involved in the safe termination of practices. These include: setting criteria for the release of material and sites from regulatory control; determining the suitability of the various options for decommissioning nuclear facilities, managing the waste and material released from control (recycling, reuse or disposal), and the eventual remediation of the site. Some countries have put in place regulatory infrastructures and have developed programmes to manage the associated decommissioning and remediation activities. Other countries are at the stage of assessing what is involved in terminating such practices. The purpose of this international conference was to foster an exchange of information on the safe and orderly termination of practices that involve the use of radioactive substances, including both decommissioning and environmental remediation, and to promote improved coherence internationally in strategies and criteria for the safe termination of practices. The conference explored seven main topics: the overall magnitude of the problem; regulatory approaches and safety strategies; status and development of decommissioning technologies; planning and implementation; funding approaches and strategies; consideration of social issues; and criteria for the removal of regulatory controls. This publication, which constitutes the record of the conference, includes the opening speeches, invited papers, summaries of the panel discussions and sessions, and the findings of the conference