Page 226 - Beyond Decommissioning

Experience and lessons learned 207

Fig. 6.24 The Rome gasholder.
Credit to Rita Restifo.

6.3 Bunkers, tunnels, and other underground installations

There are varied underground structures at nuclear sites. Underground features
considered here might include bunkers, tanks, water supply conducts, fire protec-
tion, sewerage, mine tunnels and vaults,etc.Someofthese SSCsmay requiredis-
mantling or remediation. However, depending on the redevelopment plans for the
site some of the underground SSCs may even be useful and are left in situ. In gen-
eral, underground structures may reduce the redevelopment potential of a site for
two main reasons: (1) real or suspected contamination, which is often difficult to
locate, identify, and remove; and (2) the physical obstacles that existing under-
ground structures may pose to the installation of new structures. Some nuclear sites
(e.g., waste repositories or uranium mines) are intrinsically based on underground
structures (Fig. 6.25).
Economics and politics are behind many of the world’s more extensive excavation
projects, from resource mines to missile silos. When mines run dry and silos are aban-
doned, many of the resulting voids represent significant sunk costs but correspond-
ingly stable frameworks. Therefore, underground redevelopments are normally the
products of adaptive reuse, converting existing voids into new functions.
Industrial facilities and sites may have bunkers for a variety of purposes. At the
time the entire facility or site is decommissioned, bunkers cease their functions as
well. In practice, redevelopment experience with bunkers refers mostly to military
installations or fallout shelters.
Homes in silos are not for everyone, but have drawn the attention of some since the
beginning of the Cold War. Their relatively small size, lack of natural light, and ver-
tical orientation makes them unattractive to the general public but their reinforced
shells and remote locations can be appealing to survivalist-minded people.