Decommissioning and dismantling reactors and managing waste

In the early forties/fifties, a number of countries launched the first developments in the field of nuclear power. Some of them now have large numbers of nuclear facilities and nuclear power plants which have met, and continue to meet, the objectives for which they were designed and built. Other plants, including nuclear fuel production and enrichment plants, experimental reactors or research reactors, will have to be dismantled and demolished in the near future. These activities are handled differently in different countries as a function of specific energy policies, advanced development plans, current financial resources, the availability of qualified engineers and specialized industries able to handle projects of this kind, as well as other factors. All dismantling and demolition projects serve the purpose of returning the respective sites to green-field conditions.