Link to the study - European Parliament - Europa

Policy Department D: Budgetary Affairs
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contaminated in facility-internal smaller or larger release events. Figure 3 shows the distribution of
operating times prior to entering shutdown state.
Figure 3: Operating time of reactors before entering shutdown state
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Operating time of reactors before shut down state
# of reactors
31
25
20
15
15 15
10
5
6
4
7
10
0
< 5 5..10 10..15 15..20 20..30 30..40 >40
Operating time before shut down (Years)
Source: Authors, data derived from the IAEA-PRIS database (PRIS 2013)
The figure shows that one third of the reactors were in operation for between 20 and 30 years,
another third for less than 20 years and the rest for more than 30 years. So, on the one side, the
current decommissioning projects in the EU represent the whole range of operating history duration.
On the other side the majority is not representative of long or very long (beyond 30 years) operating
histories.
Reactor types of reactors in shutdown state
Another factor for decommissioning is the type of reactor. The reactor types determine the technical
modes of deconstruction, the waste amounts and types. They indicate specific problematic
deconstruction steps potentially requiring additional R&D. The types differ in terms of the moderator
(e.g. water, heavy water or graphite) and the coolant used (e.g. water, gas or sodium). The type
distribution in the EU is displayed in Figure 4.
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