[en] The operation of nuclear sites results in contamination of surfaces within their containment. Decommissioning of nuclear sites requires decontamination of metal surfaces and building structures to minimize the mass and volume of radioactive waste products. State of the art decontamination technologies are based on chemical and mechanical approaches, which achieve high decontamination factors, but result in the generation of chemical and secondary radioactive waste. Cleaning of surfaces by scanned laser beams renders the processing of large surfaces at high surface rates possible. Laser cleaning is simultaneously free of contact and restoring forces and could lead to the further reduction of radioactive waste from decommissioning of nuclear sites. The results of international state of science are summarized and applied for the choice of a laser, which is able to comply with the demands for application in decontamination tasks. Within this thesis a ns-pulsed Nd:YAG-laser with a mean power of 150 W is modified for the utilization in nuclear sites by enclosing the process zone around the ablation area to omit the spread of the mobilized radionuclides. Laser/substrate-interaction results in metal removal via melting and vaporization and a maximum melt depth of 1,8 μm is detected. No further changes within the grain structure of metal substrates are found by the analysis of cross-sections using microscopy and scanning electron microscopy when pulse frequencies of 12 kHz are applied. The removal of decontamination paint is achieved for fluences above 1,8 J cm${}^{\text{–<!-- ??? -->}2}$ at high removal rates of ≈ 1,1 μm J${}^{\text{–<!-- ??? -->}1}$ cm${}^{\text{–<!-- ??? -->}2}$, compared to the very low removal rate for ferritic steel of ≈ 0,006 μm J${}^{\text{–<!-- ??? -->}1}$ cm${}^{\text{–<!-- ??? -->}2}$. Complete and selective removal of the paints can thus be realized, which contributes to the waste minimization in decontamination projects. Laser-based decontamination is exercised for stable as well as radioactive isotopes in comparative experiments. For this purpose, sample preparation methods are developed to provide replicable contaminated surfaces. The activity of radioactive samples is reduced to less than 3 % of the starting value by laser-based decontamination, which is proof of the very good suitability of the process for the application in nuclear decommissioning.