Page 125 - Beyond Decommissioning

106 Beyond Decommissioning

Fig. 5.1 NRC and ORISE contractors perform confirmatory surveys at Big Rock Point, NY at
former reactor locations (courtesy of NRC). These surveys are meant to verify compliance with
site release criteria as the last step before termination of the nuclear license and site unrestricted
release.

It should be noted that some national legislations specify radiological end state
criteria, typically unrestricted clearance levels. In this case, redevelopment options
are not constrained by remaining contamination: any option would be radiologically
acceptable (e.g., residential, schools, etc.). However, non-radiological considerations
(e.g., socioeconomic, infrastructure) may favor one or another option.
Experience with decommissioning projects showed that unrestricted use might be
inappropriate for such reasons as: (1) there may be public or environmental damage in
reaching unrestricted release, (2) expected reuse of the site would make unrestricted
release unnecessary, (3) the cost of remediation and waste disposal to reach
unrestricted release could be excessive if compared with achieving the same dose
criteria by restricting the site use and eliminating exposure pathways.
To accommodate these concerns the term brownfield was invented to mean the
conversion of a site to an industrial state (possibly different from a nuclear one) that
would profit from site improvements, labor pool, and infrastructure available for
future development. The lower financial and social costs of a brownfield site as com-
pared with a greenfield site was an incentive to considering brownfields. Some facil-
ities may be unable to decommission to unrestricted release levels because of the lack
of cost-effective disposal modes: in this regard, the French approach to very-low-
level-waste disposal (later followed by other countries and recognized by the IAEA)
can be instrumental to dispose of high-volume low-activity waste and so reach
unrestricted release conditions. Administrative constraints (a.k.a. institutional con-
trols) should be in place to assure the facility and site would not be used for schools,