The International Atomic Energy Agency said Wednesday it has sealed an agreement with two European educational institutions to develop educational and training material intended to assist in decommissioning of nuclear research reactors.
The tools and materials from the U.N. agency, the Slovak University of Technology, and the Technical University Vienna-Atominstitut (ATI) would be provided at no cost to IAEA member nations, according to the announcement.
“The IAEA has many ongoing activities to assist Member States in planning and operating research reactors, including their decommissioning,” Christophe Xerri, director of the IAEA’s Division of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology, said in the release. “The agreement we signed today will contribute to the development of appropriate tools for planning and cost estimation based on a well-established physical and radiological inventory of the materials that need to be managed. Planning well in advance for the comprehensive cost of decommissioning, including timeliness of the work and final waste disposal path, is a recommended good practice.”
ATI’s TRIGA research reactor in Vienna, Austria, will be the “reference facility” to show the value of the organizations’ decommissioning planning and expense model, the IAEA said.
Globally, roughly 300 research reactors and critical assemblies have undergone decommissioning to date, the IAEA said. Another 180 have ended operations, with about 50 of those being decommissioned. Meanwhile, there are 225 still-active research reactors, some of which have been operating for over four decades and will shut down in the near term.
