Page 10 - Beyond Decommissioning

Preface

We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all the power we need inside
ourselves already. We have the power to imagine better.
J. K. Rowling, Harvard Commencement Address (2008)
Early attention to the redevelopment opportunities for decommissioned sites and
facilities is a crucial aspect of nuclear decommissioning. Advance planning for
post-decommissioning site redevelopment can ease the transition from operation to
decommissioning, decrease the financial liabilities, ensure job continuity to opera-
tions staff and contractors, and mitigate the impact of decommissioning on the local
stakeholders. Unfortunately, the lack of early planning for redevelopment is a reality
in many nuclear decommissioning projects. In general, the prevailing attitude is that
nuclear decommissioning is the (sad) ending of a successful story, and what follows to
it is somebody else’s care: instead, the post-decommissioning phase should be viewed
as a great opportunity for the beginning of another successful story. This inadequacy
may be due to insufficient understanding of redevelopment experience resulting from
nonnuclear decommissioning projects. This book provides an overview of nuclear and
nonnuclear decommissioning projects successfully completed with the redevelopment
of the decommissioned sites. Lessons learned (not all successful experiences) from
these projects are given in detail. The book includes also guidance on factors
fostering—or militating against—the redevelopment of facilities and sites.
Nuclear operators including those responsible for decommissioning, decision
makers at corporate and government level, regulatory bodies, local authorities, envi-
ronmental planners, and the public at large are relevant stakeholders in site redevel-
opment and represent the main readership of this book. The book may be of special
interest to owners and operators of nuclear facilities for which date and methods of
final shutdown and dismantling have not yet been finalized. Especially when a facility
does not have to permanently close down soon, there can be opportunities to amelio-
rate the closure strategy through an early appraisal of the potential redevelopment
value of the facility and site assets. By illustrating the range of redevelopment options,
and by highlighting the main factors promoting or hindering redevelopment, this book
will hopefully spur those concerned with nuclear operation and decommissioning to
evaluate reuse at an early stage.
The book will also be relevant to nuclear regulators: it will prove to them that incor-
poration of post-decommissioning redevelopment will help complete the
decommissioning of obsolete facilities safely and in the best interest of all those
affected, especially local communities. In reading this book the decision makers—
ranging from governmental and local authorities to funding bodies—will also be
acquainted with the broad benefits to the general public and the local communities
resulting from the redevelopment of nuclear facilities and sites: these benefits include