The 13th International Conference on Environmental ... - Events

Abstracts
4) 40289 – Activities of the OECD/NEA WPDD in the Field of Decommissioning
Claudio Pescatore, Patrick O'Sullivan, OECD/NEA
<strong>The</strong> OECD/NEA seeks to assist its member countries in developing strategies for the management of all types of
radioactive material, including waste, that are safe and sustainable and that meet the broad needs of society - with
particular emphasis on the management of long-lived waste and spent fuel and on decommissioning of disused nuclear
facilities. <strong>The</strong> programme of work in the area of decommissioning is supervised by the Radioactive Waste Management
Committee (RWMC) and carried out by the Working Party on Decommissioning and Dismantling (WPDD). <strong>The</strong> latter is
made of senior representatives from regulatory authorities, decommissioning organisations, policy making bodies, and
researchand-development institutions from the NEA countries. It includes also representatives of the IAEA and of the the
European Commission. <strong>The</strong> WPDD supports the RWMC by keeping under review the policy, strategic, and regulatory
aspects of decommissioning of phased-out nuclear installations. Its scope of work includes decommissioning and
dismantling of shutdown facilities up to and including the release of the site, but excluding fuel removal, removal of
nuclear processing fluids, post-operational clean out of fuel residues and removal of operational wastes. <strong>The</strong> work
programme comprises activities in the following key areas: Policy, regulation and strategy; Funding and costs;
Techniques; Decommissioning materials management and site release; and Human and organisational factors. Recent
trends in the above areas, as noted in a recent analysis by the WPDD, include: • Policy, regulations and strategy – most
countries have adopted policies for decommissioning and for funding provisioning but a range of options were being
applied to the decommissioning of nuclear power plants (early dismantling, safe store and entombment), • Funding and
costs – cost calculations for decommissioning are very sensitive to the assumed end-state and to the levels of
contaminations on the sites and may be greatly influenced by stakeholder requirements, • Techniques – the focus of
current R&D is on the development of innovative technology for segmentation, dismantling and concrete
decontamination, together with better instrumentation for material management and control • Materials management and
site release – there is a significant acceleration in the number of decommissioning projects, including provision of
infrastructure for storage of materials and for undertaking clearance and recycling of disused materials; • Human and
organisational factors – efforts are being made to structure decommissioning contracts to optimise the supply chain
relationships, with greater transparency and better communication amongst all concerned parties; and • Stakeholder
participation and knowledge management – there is a range of approaches to stakeholder involvement in developing
decommissioning plans and to rule making. In general, this issue is gaining momentum. A number of specific activities,
projects and reports address the above areas. <strong>The</strong>y will be reviewed for the ICEM-2010 audience
5) 40307 – French Decommissioning Feedback Experience and Lessons Learned
Jean-Guy Nokhamzon, CEA (France); Patrick O'Sullivan, OECD/NEA
<strong>The</strong> French (CEA, EDF and AREVA) experience in decommissioning of nuclear facilities goes back many decades
and relates to many installations of very different types.
Some twenty facilities were dealt with by 2009, corresponding to around half of all the nuclear facilities
permanently closed up to date, beginning in March 2001 with the decommissioning of AT1 facility at La Hague, the pilot
plant used by the CEA in the seventies for the reprocessing of spent fuel from fast neutron reactors (former IAEA stage 3,
excluding the civil engineering structures), as well as the blasting of G1 stack at Marcoule, on 19 July 2003 and ending
with the total demolition of the research reactors Triton and Néréide in Fontenay aux Roses in 2004 and the final steps
for the total decommissioning of Siloë, Siloette and Mélusine in Grenoble research Centre by 2012.
All the work done demonstrates the following:
1) Decommissioning can and has been done in a safe, cost-effective and environmentally friendly manner.
2) Current technologies have demonstrated their effectiveness and robust performance in numerous
decommissioning activities. Feedback experience on design, construction and operation is a considerable help for
reliable planning, cost evaluation and successful realization of a decommissioning project.�
3) During decommissioning radiological risks are very small in comparison to non-radiological risks.
4) <strong>The</strong> dissemination of best practices and sharing of information in international workshops, conferences and
especially within working groups as the OECD/NEA/CPD and IAEA/IDN has proven to be a good basis for an
effective cooperation and support to master new challenges on decommissioning projects.�
5) Future challenges will require further international cooperation to establish sustainable regulations and
guidance to achieve objectives without being burdensome or overly conservative.
6) A consistent, internationally accepted rationale is necessary for the elaboration of concepts and for the
derivation of numerical values on clearance, exemption and authorized releases.
7) With decommissioning moving towards being a fully mature industrial process, increased dialogue among
regulators, implementers and international standards organisations is necessary.
6) 40032 – Decommissioning Planning for Swedish Operating NPPs�
Gunnar Hedin, Mathias Edelborg, Niklas Bergh, Westinghouse Electric Sweden (Sweden); Jan Carlsson, Fredrik
de la Gardie, SKB (Sweden)
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