The Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)-Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) – together with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) – will soon publish new guidance on improving cost estimates of nuclear decommissioning projects.

Simon Carroll, a senior analyst with the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority, told delegates at the Nuclear Decommissioning & Waste Management Conference Europe that the guidance addresses project risk and uncertainty in cost estimates “in a more comprehensive fashion” than existing practice, according to World Nuclear News.

International groups have been studying cost estimates for nuclear decommissioning for years since publication of the so-called “Yellow Book” in 1999, which was a joint effort of the OECD-NEA, the IAEA and the European Commission.

The guidance has been produced by a joint team of experts from the OECD-NEA Decommissioning Cost Estimation Group (DCEG), which Carroll chairs, and from the IAEA.

“There is an ongoing and perhaps grave concern about potential cost overruns and escalating cost estimates for decommissioning projects,” Carroll told delegates at the conference, which took place in Manchester, England on May 24-25.

Sharing nuclear decommissioning cost data is sensitive, but it is essential for gaining a better insight into decommissioning costs and also for managing decommissioning projects, Carroll said during the gathering of international experts.

Speaking on background, a U.S.-based industry official contacted by Radwaste Monitor noted that “The companies that do this for a living at a fixed price literally live or die based on their costs estimates.”

The new uncertainties report was produced by a joint OECD-NEA and IAEA group of experts which comprised about 20 members and will be published by the NEA this month. The DCEG’s work on benchmarking will continue until the end of 2018, WNN said.