OECD Nuclear Energy Agency / L'Agence pour l'énergie nucléaire

Working Party on Decommissioning and Dismantling (WPDD)

The Working Party on Decommissioning and Dismantling (WPDD) brings together senior representatives of national organisations who have a broad overview of decommissioning and dismantling (D&D) issues through their work as regulators, implementers, R&D experts or policy makers.

The Secretary of the European CommissionThematic Network on Decommissioning is a member of the WPDD; the IAEA also participates. This ensures close co-ordination with activities in these programmes. Participation from civil society organisations is on a case-by-case basis, and is a common feature in WPDD activities.

The WPDD is mandated to:

Define, oversee and carry out work programme activities as assigned by the NEA Radioactive Waste Management Committee (RWMC), in order to increase the outreach and efficiency of both the RWMC and NEA in the field of decommissioning as described in the NEA Strategic Plan 2005-2009.
Identify and analyse main issues regarding policies and strategies for the decommissioning of phased-out nuclear facilities, including funding related issues, and the attending issues of recycling, reuse and/or disposal of materials and the release of buildings and sites.
Observe, on a world-wide level, the development of the state of the art of management and technique of decommissioning projects, and make it better available to other NEA bodies engaged in this crosscutting field, in particular building on the experience from the technical information exchange performed within the International Co-operative Programme on Decommissioning (CPD).
Facilitate multilateral communication and information exchange among the WPDD members, and to promote an open dialogue among peers, in particular the regulatory authorities, R&D institutions and the decommissioning industry both private and public,
Keep the WPDD members and the RWMC aware of progress and activities in other international fora and their implications, and help the RWMC participate in international initiatives. Co-ordination with EC and IAEA initiatives is important.
In close co-operation with the NEA Forum on Stakeholder Confidence (FSC) examine and further develop the link between decommissioning, decision-making and public confidence and acceptance, keeping in mind the long timescales for planning and carrying out decommissioning projects.
Set up, manage, and make broadly available a database of information on decommissioning in NEA member countries.
Be of service to the other NEA committees with the goal to strengthen overall visibility of decommissioning as a NEA cross-cutting activity.

The Decommissioning and Dismantling of Nuclear Facilities in NEA Member Countries: A Compilation of National Fact Sheets

This compilation of national fact sheets is intended to serve as an authoritative source of reference information on the situation in each country. In this context, the term "nuclear facility" includes all facilities associated with the production of nuclear power, from mining of uranium, through fabrication of nuclear fuel, nuclear power plant operation, fuel reprocessing and waste management, including related R&D facilities, and research and demonstration reactors. It is intended to update this compilation at least yearly. Additional information on regulatory frameworks and corresponding national fact sheets which also contain a lot of information on decommissioning, are available on the RWMC Regulators' Forum webpage.

Recent important publications

Policy, regulation and strategy

The Decommissioning and Dismantling of Nuclear Facilities: Status, Approaches, Challenges provides, in non-specialist terminology, a concise overview of the status of D&D of nuclear facilities and of the associated issues in NEA member countries. The booklet summarises the consensus on key points from the point of view of operators, regulators and policy makers involved in the D&D of nuclear facilities and those representing local communities likely to be affected by the shutdown of such facilities.

An NEA brochure Decommissioning of Nuclear Power Facilities: It can and has been done looks at decommissioning across the spectrum of nuclear power facilities and shows worldwide examples of successful projects.

A status report Achieving the goals of the decommissioning safety case (disponible également en français) lays out the necessary elements for the development of a decommissioning safety case. The report was prepared on behalf of the WPDD by its Task Group on the Decommissioning Safety Case and reflects the viewpoints and materials presented during a topical session held in December 2001 as well as the shared experience within the WPDD.

A status report on Selecting Strategies for the Decommissioning of Nuclear Facilities identifies and analyses factors influencing decommissioning strategies and addresses the challenges associated with balancing these factors in the process of strategy selection.

Funding and costs

The proceedings of the topical session on funding held in November 2004 addresses the three different subjects examined during the topical session: ethical values; actual experiences of fund setting and management; and uncertainties in funding.

An associated status report Decommissioning Funding: Ethics, Implementation, Uncertainties provides a concise summary of the current status of these issues.

The proceedings of the workshop Safe, Efficient, and Cost-effective Decommissioning, held in Rome in 2004, includes a summary of the workshop conclusions as well as all the papers presented in the course of the workshop.

Techniques

The report Radioactivity Measurements at Regulatory Release Levels discusses the currently available methods for measuring radioactivity on materials to be released from regulatory control.

Decommissioning materials management and site release

A status report Releasing the Sites of Nuclear Installations (disponible également en français) reflects viewpoints and materials presented during a topical session held in June 2002, the results of a questionnaire conducted among nuclear decommissioning projects, papers presented at international conferences and experience from experts in the field of clearance and release from regulatory control.

Human factors and stakeholder involvement

A report examining the stakeholder issues and involvement in the decommissioning of nuclear facilities was issued in 2007.

The Proceedings of the Topical Session on Stakeholder Involvement in Decommissioning held on 14 November 2005 provides viewpoints of different stakeholders, as well as a number of case studies. An associated report Stakeholder Involvement in Decommissioning Nuclear Facilities reviews decommissioning and dismantling experience in order to identify stakeholder concerns and best practices in addressing them. The lessons learnt about the end of the facility life cycle can contribute to better foresight in siting and building new facilities.

What We Heard Within WPDD on Stakeholder Involvement in Decommissioning, 2001-2004: A Compilation of Papers brings together all the papers on stakeholder involvement presented at WPDD meetings during the period 2001-2004.

Working Party on Decommissioning and Dismantling (WPDD)

The Decommissioning and Dismantling of Nuclear Facilities in NEA Member Countries: A Compilation of National Fact Sheets

Recent important publications

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