Decommissioning: lessons to learn. Sharing experience and working together is important to allow the world nuclear community to respond to the challenge of restoring nuclear facilities safely, and cost effectively

The decommissioning of nuclear plants and facilities is becoming an increasingly significant global activity as many of the world's nuclear facilities reach maturity. Carefully planned decommissioning is necessary both to remove the potential hazards from redundant nuclear plants and to demonstrate that environmental restoration of modern plants can be effectively and safely managed. Today's ageing facilities range from experimental plants where environmental restoration was not considered at the design stage to more modern power reactors where decommissioning was addressed at the design phase. The total worldwide cost is estimated at thousands of billions of dollars. The World Nuclear Association Database (WNA) summarises nuclear facilities which have been retired from operation and are either awaiting or undergoing decommissioning as: 115 power and research reactors; 5 reprocessing facilities; 14 fuel fabrication plants; 60 mines. This article highlights key issues facing international decommissioning programmes drawing on the experience of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) to illustrate important lessons for the industry. (author)