Decommissioning Nuclear Power Plants
What is Decommissioning?
Decommissioning is the process of removing
a commercial nuclear power plant from service
so that the land may be used for something
else. Decommissioning is a complex process
that can take up to 60 years.
Hi, I'm Bruce Watson. I'm the Chief of the
Reactor Decommissioning Branch at the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission. Decommissioning is
the safe dismantling and decontamination of
a nuclear facility. In this particular case,
we are talking about nuclear reactors.
The reactor is actually disassembled, the
material is packaged and shipped offsite as
low-level waste all the radioactive material.
Then the structure is decontaminated so that
the license can be terminated. Once the license
demonstrates to us that, the residual radioactivity
meets are limits.
How is a Nuclear Plant Decommissioned?
Once the company decides to close the plant,
it certifies to the NRC that it has permanently
ceased operations and removed the fuel from
the reactor. The plant is no longer allowed
to operate. The company then has up to two
years to submit its decommissioning plan to
the NRC.
A power company has three options -- ENTOMB,
or sealing the facility permanently to shield
any leftover radiation from the environment;
SAFSTOR, which is essentially leaving the
property untouched for several years so that
radioactivity decays considerably, making
final cleanup easier and safer; and immediate
DECON, which involves removing buildings and
infrastructure and decontaminating the land
to levels safe for public use. Most operators
combine the SAFSTOR and DECON approaches.
The decommissioning plans would include basically
three things:
First is the strategy, which the licensee
is going to use to decommission the plant.
Second --is the schedule for decommissioning
and also provides us with an updated to cost
estimated for the radiological decommissioning
of the site.
And lastly, it provides us an affirmation
that the environmental impacts that have already
been analyzed by the site will or will not
be adversely affected by the decommissioning
process. Typically, they are not.
The benefits of waiting 50 years to do the
decommissioning is that the radiation levels
in the plant will be significantly reduced
to only about 1 percent of those that would
have been to when the plant was shut down.
This represents a significant savings in radiation
exposure to the workers who dismantle the
plant.
The spent fuel from the reactor is transferred
from the spent fuel pool to dry casks for
storage on-site until another option, such
as a permanent disposal facility, becomes
available. Contaminated materials, such as
concrete, piping, metals and even soil, are
generally disposed of in a low-level waste
disposal facility. Some more hazardous material
may be stored by the Department of Energy
for ultimate disposal.
What is the NRC�s Role?
The NRC oversees each stage of the cleanup
and conducts final surveys to verify that
the site has been cleaned to our strict specifications.
Once the NRC terminates the license, the bulk
of the site may be used for other purposes,
such as a new non-nuclear power plant or even
a public park.
Can the public get involved?
The NRC holds public meetings near the site
to explain the agency's review process and
receive public comment on the decommissioning
plan. Members of the public may also request
an adjudicatory hearing on
the plan. At various points during decommissioning
-- most notably near the end as the cleanup
is finished -- the NRC will hold additional
meetings to update the public on the company's
progress.
ON CAMERA The public is invited to provide
comments at two specific points during the
decommission process.
First, one is when the utilities submit the
post shutdown decommissioning activities report.
We hold a public meeting to solicit comments
from the public. We are interested in any
additional information, which the licensee
has not provided to us.
Second opportunity for public involvements
is when the license termination plan is submitted
for a reactor. It is required to be submitted
2 years before the licensing will be submitting
their request to terminate the license, so
this could be far off in the future and on
the licensees� schedule.
For more information on the status of current
decommissioning facilities, visit the NRC
website at
www .n r c. g o v .
