Conclusions and Recommendations

Abstract

There is a substantial amount of literature available on decommissioning of nuclear power plants and, although much of it is repetitive and does little more than reflect on the subject, two key factors emerge. Firstly, it seems clear that no nuclear plant built to date has been designed with decommissioning as an important consideration. Secondly, concensus of current opinion appears to be that decommissioning of existing plants will be carried out in three stages, the last of these perhaps being delayed until approximately 100 years after final shutdown. At that time activity within the reactor cavity will have decayed to a level below which further decay is very slow and to which man may not be exposed for more than very limited periods. This would necessitate surveillance of each individual site for periods of at least 100 years after shutdown and raises the philosophical issue of whether future generations would be prepared to accept this situation with respect to public safety and protection of the environment.