Is Research useful for Dismantling? The BR3 REX in Belgium

The BR3 reactor was decommissioned in 1987 and 2 years later it was chosen by the European Union as a pilot project for the dismantling of nuclear facilities. This pilot project has succeeded in combining 2 aspects: research and industrial application. On one hand it has allowed the development of techniques for decontaminating, cutting, assessing and managing large quantities of radioactive materials. On the other hand all these techniques have been validated at an industrial scale by using them on the dismantling of BR3 itself. Furthermore, a lot of big European enterprises in the nuclear industry have been associated at the earliest stage and have capitalized experience for future dismantling works. The article describes the feedback experience capitalized on the cutting of internal components, of the reactor vessel and of concrete structures and on the decontamination of metals and concretes. (A.C.)