Link to the study - European Parliament - Europa

Nuclear Decommissioning: Management of Costs and Risks
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3.2.9. Overall characteristics of the example
The time schedule
The development of an appropriate decommissioning strategy and of the respective regulatory
issues in France needed a lengthy process:
The evolution of the decommissioning strategy from deferred decommissioning in the late
1980s, with safe enclosure lasting 50 years, towards the immediate decommissioning concept
in 1999 was a 10-year process.
The corresponding regulatory issues, clearly defining the responsibilities and the
establishment of the relevant regulatory body (ASN) only occurred in 2006.
The required legal framework was set up in 2006.
The first decommissioning project - Chooz A – with the target of completion by 2016
(finishing of dismantling of the reactor cavern) is seen as an ambitious project. The
subsequent decontamination and regeneration shall be finished in 2025 at the latest, so the
complete process from shutdown in 1991 to final decommissioning will have taken 34 years.
The experiences with the decommissioning projects
The experiences are still seen as insufficient and will mainly be obtained during the first
decommissioning projects and, hopefully, by sharing the experiences with others.
Chooz A is the first PWR that is being decommissioned by EDF in France.
EDF expects to gain expertise in terms of schedule, cost, worker exposure, safety and waste
management during the decommissioning of Chooz A.
Costs estimates and financial control
The basic requirements as regards the costs estimates and control system were properly
introduced by ASN within relevant regulatory requirements. A national controlling system with
relevant liabilities was defined. A supporting framework for the operator is thus given and
simultaneously the operator has the required freedom for own decision making.
The operator is responsible for the funds to cover the decommissioning costs.
As the regulatory body requires that the funds for decommissioning be both sufficient and
available when needed, the operator developed long term financial planning with a
corresponding controlling system and cost estimates.
The performed cost estimates varied within wide ranges throughout the years in which the
estimations were made. This was due partly to contingencies and uncertainties of
administrative and industrial nature. These should be better analyzed separately for every
reactor (based on the experiences in the past) and taken up in the cost estimations together
with uncertainty margins.
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