Link to the study - European Parliament - Europa

Nuclear Decommissioning: Management of Costs and Risks
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4.8.1. Workforce aspects in the decommissioning projects
In respect to workforce issues, the best practice is to:
Work as much as possible with own experienced persons that have insider knowledge on the
facility and its operating history;
Overcome inner barriers and manage changes in the perspective of those;
Increase and train knowledge and skills of those towards decommissioning.
Bulgaria
Bulgaria chose a different way to restructure the workforce needed for decommissioning. After
transferring the ownership of Unit 1 and 2 in 2008 to the organisation DP RAO (see chapter 4.4.1) the
respective unit in this organisation was set up. The staff at that time was very small and did not
include workforce personnel.
Only after the Kozloduy Units 1 and 2 received the license as installations for the management of
radioactive wastes in 2010, around 100 'specialists', former employees of the NPP, were also
transferred to DP RAO (DP RAO 2013). According to different insiders, at that time most of the
employees did not see this as an attractive future opportunity and DP RAO not as an attractive
employer so that the risk of losing knowledge and experience was very high.
Only after the transfer of Units 3 and 4 followed in 2012 the situation improved. In ANNEX 3 the more
technical aspects are described (in answering to the aspects 'acceptance of the new targets, job
satisfaction, self-complacency, expert excellence' in question), so that the respective aspects cannot be
evaluated.
The named training courses in ANNEX 3 show that it has been recognized what re-qualification
means and how valuable improved skills and knowledge is.
Lithuania
The minutes of the meeting (as documented in ANNEX 4) report about a very long period that it took
to overcome previous structures, to adapt to the new tasks and to see decommissioning as a new
challenge. This process is described as 'still ongoing', but majorly settled. In the meantime new
personnel, that is not familiar with the operating habits, is employed and contributes to progress in
this field.
About 5 000 employees were employed during operation (ANNEX 4), while 2 053 employees worked
at INPP on 2 January 2013 (INPP 2013b). Most of today's employees stem from the operational phase.
Remarkably are the efforts to adapt a set of safety culture indicators, which were already developed
and implemented in the operational phase, to the specific needs and conditions in the
decommissioning phase.
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