Decommissioning
The decommissioning of a nuclear facility such as a power plant or research reactor is the final stage of its life cycle.
It involves activities from the closure and removal of nuclear material to the environmental restoration of the site.
The whole process is complex and lengthy (up to 30 years) and is carried out with the highest safety standards.
The Euratom Directives on nuclear safety and the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste establish the national and ultimate responsibility of Member States for the nuclear safety of nuclear installations, including decommissioning operations, and for the safe management of spent fuel and waste radioactive substances generated in them.
The EU recommendations
The European Commission assists the Member States in addressing issues related to funding of nuclear decommissioning through a group of experts known as the Decommissioning Funding Group (DFG).
The role of these experts is to:
Currently more than 90 nuclear reactors have been permanently shut down in the EU, and several more will be shut down in the next decade. Similarly, several other facilities of the nuclear fuel cycle are going to be shut down and will need to be decommissioned. |
Nuclear decommissioning programmes
Following the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, the EU decided that so-called High Power Channel Type Reactors (RBMK) and other first-generation Soviet-designed nuclear reactors would need to be shut down. At the time of their accession to the EU, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Slovakia agreed to shut down reactors at the sites of Kozloduy, Ignalina and Bohunice respectively.
The EU launched the nuclear decommissioning assistance programmes in order to fulfil the accession agreements. In the initial years and until 2013, the EU co-financed decommissioning activities related to safe removal of radioactive materials as well as flanking actions, such as projects to mitigate the consequences of shutting down the reactors (e.g. replacement for lost electricity generation capacity) and to mitigate social consequences (such as lost employment).
As of 2014 and gradually afterwards the dedicated EU co-financing has been concentrated on safety challenges of the decommissioning, while other actions can be financed by other sources or instruments.
The Commission manages these programmes by entrusting implementation tasks to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in all three Member States, to the Central Project Management Agency in Lithuania, and to the Slovak Innovation and Energy Agency in Slovakia.
The EU Commission will continue supporting these programmes also in the period 2021-2027 with two distinguished proposals:
- to assist Lithuania in implementing the Ignalina nuclear power plant decommissioning, with specific emphasis on managing the radiological safety challenges - Council Regulation (EU) 2021/101 of 25 January 2021
- to assist Bulgaria and Slovakia in implementing the Kozloduy decommissioning programme (Bulgaria) and the Bohunice decommissioning programme (Slovakia), and to support the Joint Research Center (JRC) decommissioning and waste management programme - Council Regulation (Euratom) 2021/100 of 25 January 2021
These programmes have a high potential for creating EU added value through broad dissemination to all EU Member States of knowledge thereby generated on nuclear decommissioning.