Decommissioning of Complex Nuclear Sites

A complex nuclear site is one that houses several nuclear facilities on a single site. Often these include different types of facilities (e.g. reactors, heavy water processing & storage and waste management) in several lifecycle stages (construction, operations, refurbishment and decommissioning). Interferences between them are possible and decommissioning often suffers from a lower priority. CSA standard N294 (Decommissioning of nuclear facilities) provides guidance on decommissioning of complex sites and REGDOC 2.11.2 (Decommissioning) requires that an overarching decommissioning plan be prepared to consider possible interferences between facilities that might arise during decommissioning. Unfortunately, the latest revision of N294 will provide little additional guidance on writing an overarching, or comprehensive, decommissioning plan. This presentation will review international experience in writing overarching decommissioning plans for complex sites and the existing domestic experience. It will also review possible guidance that might be included in the 2030 revision of CSA N294.