Reflections on funding approaches and strategies

This statement deals with the following issues: availability of funds, reasonable funding mechanisms; who should control the funds collected to support decommissioning activities; how should inherited or abandoned facilities and sites that require decommissioning be funded; how does the transfer of ownership of a facility affect funding? In conclusion it is stated: There are unavoidable uncertainties even in a well designed funding system; these uncertainties increase over time; early decommissioning and dismantling operations will probably help to keep uncertainties at a low level; a funding system that is considered trustworthy in the eyes of the general public is probably an asset; when governments, regulatory authorities and utilities try to create trust while developing and implementing a nuclear energy policy; the consequences of a lack of economic resources for decommissioning can already be observed in certain countries