The decommissioning of accelerators: an exercise in the recycling of radioactive material

Compared with the number of nuclear power plants that will be decommissioned over the next few years accelerators are only a ''small'' source of radioactivity although at CERN the total amount of mostly metallic material activated in the operation of the accelerators is estimated to be of the order of 15 Mtons. Various existing approaches to classify and administer radioactive material will be presented with all of them clearly earmarked by the requirements of the nuclear cycle. There are however important differences between activation in reactors and accelerators that will be worked out. It will be shown that an attitude based on reuse or recycling of activated accelerator material should be preferred to the elimination as radioactive waste