Decommissioning strategies being implemented in the USA

Decommission is defined in the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (USNRC's) regulations at 10 CFR 20.1003 as 'to remove a facility or site safely from service and reduce residual radioactivity to a level that permits: 1) release of the property for unrestricted use and termination of the license; or, 2) release of the property under restricted conditions and the termination of the license'. On 21 July 1997, the USNRC published the final rule on Radiological Criteria for License Termination (the License Termination Rule or LTR) as Subpart E to 10 CFR Part 20. This rule authorized two different sets of cleanup criteria - a concentration-based criteria (referred to as the Site Decommissioning Management Plan criteria or SDMP Action Plan criteria), and a dose-based criteria. In addition, the rule provided for the remediation of sites and license termination for unrestricted use and for release with restrictions on future site uses. (author)