CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A DEVICE FOR THE DECOMMISSIONING OF THE HORIZONTAL FUEL CHANNELS IN THE CANDU 6 NUCLEAR REACTOR PART 5 - FUEL CHANEL DECOMMISSIONING

As many nuclear power plants are reaching their end of lifecycle, the decommissioning of these installations has become one of the 21st century’s great challenges. Each project may be managed differently, depending on the country, development policies, financial considerations, and the availability of qualified engineers or specialized companies to handle such projects. The principle objective of decommissioning is to place a facility into such a condition that there is no unacceptable risk from the decommissioned facility to public health and safety of the environment. In order to ensure that at the end of its life the risk from a facility is within acceptable bounds, action is normally required. The overall decommissioning strategy is to deliver a timely, cost-effective program while maintaining high standards of safety, security and environmental protection. If facilities were not decommissioned, they could degrade and potentially present an environmental radiological hazard in the future. Simply abandoning or leaving a facility after ceasing operations is not considered to be an acceptable alternative to decommissioning. The final aim of decommissioning is to recover the geographic site to its original condition.