Impact of radioactive waste management on dismantling cost

It is important to estimate the cost of decommissioning at various stages of planning to manage decommissioning projects efficiently. Uncertainties regarding radioactive waste management including the availability of disposal facilities are making the estimate challenging. Some of the uncertainties such as unit disposal cost and transportation cost directly add up to the total decommissioning cost, while other factors may also influence the overall cost by limiting how the components and structures are dismantled in order i.e. for the waste to be segregated properly and fit into designated containers. In this study, impacts of radioactive waste management on dismantling cost was examined in order to plan decommissioning effectively while dealing with these uncertainties. Assuming a case of dismantling a reactor building of a 1100 MW BWR facility, labor cost and the amount of waste in each waste category were estimated for several cases with different waste container sizes. Other factors that may affect the dismantling cost are also examined including the timing when disposal facilities become available, i.e. duration of the storage of the dismantled waste before disposed.