IAEA SAFETY RELATED PUBLICATIONS IAEA SAFETY STANDARDS Under the terms of Article III of its Statute, the IAEA is authorized to establish or adopt standards of safety for protection of health and minimization of danger to life and property, and to provide for the application of these standards. The publications by means of which the IAEA establishes standards are issued in the IAEA Safety Standards Series. This series covers nuclear safety, radiation safety, transport safety and waste safety, and also general safety (i.e. all these areas of safety). The publication categories in the series are Safety Fundamentals, Safety Requirements and Safety Guides. Safety standards are coded according to their coverage: nuclear safety (NS), radiation safety (RS), transport safety (TS), waste safety (WS) and general safety (GS). Information on the IAEA’s safety standards programme is available at the IAEA Internet site http://www-ns.iaea.org/standards/ The site provides the texts in English of published and draft safety standards. The texts of safety standards issued in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish, the IAEA Safety Glossary and a status report for safety standards under development are also available. For further information, please contact the IAEA at P.O. Box 100, 1400 Vienna, Austria. All users of IAEA safety standards are invited to inform the IAEA of experience in their use (e.g. as a basis for national regulations, for safety reviews and for training courses) for the purpose of ensuring that they continue to meet users’ needs. Information may be provided via the IAEA Internet site or by post, as above, or by email to [email protected]. OTHER SAFETY RELATED PUBLICATIONS The IAEA provides for the application of the standards and, under the terms of Articles III and VIII.C of its Statute, makes available and fosters the exchange of information relating to peaceful nuclear activities and serves as an intermediary among its Member States for this purpose. Reports on safety and protection in nuclear activities are issued as Safety Reports, which provide practical examples and detailed methods that can be used in support of the safety standards. Other safety related IAEA publications are issued as Radiological Assessment Reports, the International Nuclear Safety Group’s INSAG Reports, Technical Reports and TECDOCs. The IAEA also issues reports on radiological accidents, training manuals and practical manuals, and other special safety related publications. Security related publications are issued in the IAEA Nuclear Security Series. LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE DECOMMISSIONING OF NUCLEAR FACILITIES AND THE SAFE TERMINATION OF NUCLEAR ACTIVITIES PROCEEDINGS SERIES LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE DECOMMISSIONING OF NUCLEAR FACILITIES AND THE SAFE TERMINATION OF NUCLEAR ACTIVITIES PROCEEDINGS OF AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE DECOMMISSIONING OF NUCLEAR FACILITIES AND THE SAFE TERMINATION OF NUCLEAR ACTIVITIES ORGANIZED BY THE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, CO-SPONSORED BY THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION, IN COOPERATION WITH THE OECD NUCLEAR ENERGY AGENCY AND THE WORLD NUCLEAR ASSOCIATION, HOSTED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF GREECE THROUGH THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE HELLENIC REPUBLIC AND THE GREEK ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION AND HELD IN ATHENS, 11–15 DECEMBER 2006 INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY VIENNA, 2007 COPYRIGHT NOTICE All IAEA scientific and technical publications are protected by the terms of the Universal Copyright Convention as adopted in 1952 (Berne) and as revised in 1972 (Paris). 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B o x 1 0 0 1400 Vienna, Austria fax: +43 1 2600 29302 tel.: +43 1 2600 22417 email: [email protected] http://www.iaea.org/books © IAEA, 2007 Printed by the IAEA in Austria September 2007 STI/PUB/1299 IAEA Library Cataloguing in Publication Data International Conference on Lessons Learned from the Decommissioning of Nuclear Facilities and the Safe Termination of Nuclear Activities (2006 : Athens, Greece) Lessons learned from the decommissioning of nuclear facilities and the safe termination of nuclear activities : proceedings of an International Conference on Lessons Learned from the Decommissioning of Nuclear Facilities and the Safe Termination of Nuclear Activities / organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency, co-sponsored by the European Commission, in cooperation with the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the World Nuclear Association, hosted by the Government of Greece through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Republic and the Greek Atomic Energy Commission and held in Athens, 11–15 December, 2006. — Vienna : International Atomic Energy Agency, 2007. p. ; 24 cm. — (Proceeding series, ISSN 0074–1884) STI/PUB/1299 ISBN 978–92–0–106107–2 Includes bibliographical references. 1. Nuclear facilities — Decommissioning — Congresses. 2. Radioactive waste disposal — Congresses. I. International Atomic Energy Agency. II. European Commission. III. Series Proceedings series (International Atomic Energy Agency). IAEAL 07–00491 FOREWORD The decommissioning of facilities that use radioactive material is the final step in their life cycles and its objective is the safe termination of the activities at the facilities and the release of associated materials and sites for unrestricted or restricted use. There is an international consensus that decommissioning should be considered at the early stages of facility development. However, for many facilities built decades ago, this was not done and, as a result, insufficient consideration was given to important factors such as spent fuel and waste management and to the financial and social aspects. Internationally, immediate dismantling is recognized as the preferred decommissioning strategy because of its important advantages, such as the availability of knowledge of the facility history, the availability of skilled personnel, and social and financial considerations. However, other strategies have been justified and implemented around the world. Lessons learned from the planning, performance, termination and regulation of decommissioning of different facilities (nuclear power plants, research reactors, fuel fabrication plants, etc.) have been gathered during the last forty years. They show that properly conducted decommissioning ensures the protection of workers, the public and the environment and allows licences to be terminated safely. Decommissioning is also a key factor in demonstrating to the various interested parties that nuclear facilities can be safely managed throughout their lifetimes. The lessons learned from decommissioning projects can be incorporated in a systematic manner into the design and operation of new facilities to facilitate their own eventual decommissioning. Challenges remain in the achievement of safe and effective decommissioning, in relation to, for example, demonstration of safety, the adequacy of technology, adequate funding for decommissioning, the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste, and social considerations. It was considered timely for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to organize this international conference on the Lessons Learned from the Decommissioning of Nuclear Facilities and the Safe Termination of Nuclear Activities, from 11 to 15 December 2006 in Athens. The conference was co- sponsored by the European Commission (EC), and held in cooperation with the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD/NEA) and the World Nuclear Association (WNA). It was a follow-up to the conference on the Safe Decommissioning of Nuclear Facilities, held in Berlin in 2002. The conference was organized with the aim of sharing experience and knowledge between operators, regulators, policy makers, decision makers and technical experts. It also had the goal of identifying areas for international harmonization in the decommissioning of various facilities with different complexities and hazard potentials. Participants at the conference discussed various aspects of decommissioning in eight technical sessions: global overview; regulation of decommissioning activities; planning for decommissioning; waste management issues; technology aspects; social and economic impacts; and decommissioning of small facilities. This publication, which constitutes the record of the conference, includes the opening and closing speeches, the invited papers, the summaries of the discussions during the sessions and the panel sessions, and a summary of the conference. A CD-ROM containing the presentations made during the conference and the unedited contributed papers of the conference can be found at the back of this book. The IAEA gratefully acknowledges the support and hospitality of the Government of Greece through its Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Republic and the Greek Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC). EDITORIAL NOTE The Proceedings have been edited by the editorial staff of the IAEA to the extent considered necessary for the reader’s assistance. The