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De-commissioning
The term "decommissioning" may be defined as the process taken following the permanent closure of an industrial facility, either nuclear or non-nuclear, to ensure ongoing safety and progressively improve the quality of the local environment. Thus decommissioning begins immediately following final and permanent closure and continues ideally to the point of leaving a clear site where the facility had once stood. For nuclear facilities the decommissioning process incorporates some or all of the following activities: the safe management of nuclear materials held in the facility, the safe management of radioactive and other wastes, decontamination, plant dismantling, demolition and site remediation. Following the decommissioning process, the regulatory controls covering the facility may be terminated and the site safely released for appropriate alternative use.
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Which facilities need to be decommissioned?
All facilities within the commercial nuclear fuel cycle will eventually need to be decommissioned following their permanent closure including: uranium mines, conversion facilities, enrichment plants, fuel fabrication plants, reactors, reprocessing plants, waste management plants and stores. In addition there are many nuclear research facilities and defence related establishments that will require decommissioning. [link here to see which factors determine when a facility is permanently closed]
As of September 2001, over 90 commercial power reactors, 50 fuel cycle facilities, around 100 mines and more than 250 research facilities have been retired from operation. Many are currently being or have successfully been decommissioned |
What does decommissioning cost?
An OECD survey published in 2003 reported US dollar (2001) costs by reactor type. For western PWR's, most were $200-500/kWe, for VVERs costs were around $330/kWe, for BWRs $300-550/kWe, for CANDU $270-430/kWe. For gas-cooled reactors the costs were much higher due to the greater amount of radioactive materials involved, reaching $2600/kWe for some UK Magnox reactors.
For a reactor built in Ireland this means we would need to pay a levy of €0.001 per kWh generated over its life, to cover the cost of decommissioning a PWR. That works out at an extra €1 on your average bi-monthly bill. |
To read more on decommissioning see WNA site.
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