Progress of decommissioning projects in Canada

Canadian involvement in the decommissioning of commercial size nuclear reactors began with the placement of the 250 MW Gentilly-1 nuclear power station in a ''Static State'' (variant of IAEA Stage 1) in 1986. Since then, the 235 MW Douglas Point and 25 MW NPD stations, prototypes of the CANDU reactors, were decommissioned to Stage 1 in 1988 and 1989 respectively. Current decommissioning projects include an organically cooled reactor (WR-1) to Stage 1 at a research establishment, a commercial isotope processing facility (Tunney's Pasture) to Stage 3 in an urban environment, and several retired research or production facilities dating back to the 1950s in another research centre. Following a brief discussion on the Canadian philosophy of decommissioning, a summary of progress of decommissioning projects in Canada is presented. (author)