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• Dounreay to make a break

  Workers at the former research site at Dounreay, Scotland, are preparing to break open and remotely dismantle equipment within a used nuclear fuel reprocessing plant. Robots will tackle pipework within the 50-year-old facility. Posted Jun 16 2008, 12:14 PM by World Nuclear News Filed under: decomissioning, Scotland, Dounreay

• Consultation on decommissioning begins

  French nuclear regulators have initated a public consultation on nuclear plant decommissioning plans. The Autorité de sûreté nucléaire (Nuclear Safety Authority, ASN) said it had made the decision in the light developments such as the passing of a law on transparency in nuclear materials management in June 2006, new International Atomic Energy Agency standards and the work of Wenra (a non-governmental organisation comprised of senior nuclear safety regulators from across Europe). A draft document has been sent to stakeholders such as nuclear plant operators, environmental associations and local authorities introducing ASN's policies on decommissioning and demolishing nuclear plants in France, and inviting comment. The general public will also be able to make comments through ASN's website. The consultation ends on 31 May. Posted Apr 07 2008, 04:45 PM by World Nuclear News Filed under: decomissioning

• North Korea misses declaration deadline

  [Korea Times, Financial Times, 1 January] North Korea failed to meet a 31 December deadline to declare details of its nuclear programs. Under a multinational agreement reached in February 2007, North Korea agreed that by the end of 2007 it would disable its Yongbyon reactor and present a list of all its nuclear programs in return for economic aid and political concessions. The Yongbyon reactor was shut down in July 2007 and work to disable the facility is underway. The delay with disabling Yongbyon appears to be mainly due to technical issues. To extract and remove some 8000 fuel rods at the reactor could simply not be done safely by the end of 2007. South Korea, Japan and the USA, while expressing disappointment that North Korea had failed to submit a declaration of its nuclear programs as promised, have urged the country to do so as soon as possible. Tom Casey, a spokesman for the US State Department, said: "The important thing is not whether we have the declaration by today or not. The important thing is that we get a declaration that meets the requirements of the agreement, which means it needs to be full and complete." He added, "We've seen these kinds of delays and other things occur in the process as we move along, and in some cases, you almost have to expect those kinds of things to happen, given the difficulty and the nature of what we are trying to do." Posted Jan 02 2008, 10:35 AM by World Nuclear News Filed under: decomissioning

• Exelon contracts at both ends of reactor life

  Exelon Nuclear has signed a contract which should see decommissioning of its shut-down Zion power station completed a decade early. It has also signed a major order for heavy forgings and components for two new reactors it is considering building in Texas. Posted Dec 13 2007, 10:43 AM by World Nuclear News Filed under: Zion, decomissioning, Exelon