Core components of Sweden's Ringhals units 1 and 2 will be cut up and disposed of by Westinghouse, starting as early as April 2023, plant owner Vattenfall has announced. A contract announced today covers the reactor pressure vessels, internals and fuel racks. The companies described the deal as "extending their long-standing nuclear energy partnership into decommissioning activities."

Decommissioning of the RBMK reactor at Leningrad 1 has reached a milestone with the removal of all fuel from the reactor core. Rosenergoatom plans to use some of the fuel in the two RBMK reactors which remain in operation at the Leningrad site.

Cavendish Nuclear has been awarded a contract by Magnox Limited to supply the Concrete Box Loading Facility at the decommissioned Hinkley Point A nuclear power plant in the UK. The facility will be used to process and package solid intermediate-level radioactive waste.

Dounreay Site Restoration Limited has awarded two contracts worth a combined GBP11.2 million (USD15.9 million) to USA-based engineering group Jacobs for decommissioning work at the Dounreay site in Scotland. Under the contracts, Jacobs will upgrade the ventilation system at the Prototype Fast Reactor and develop the decommissioning strategy for the fast reactor fuel reprocessing plant in the Fuel Cycle Area.

Exelon Generation yesterday announced the filing of Post Shutdown Decommissioning Activity Reports for its Byron and Dresden plants, due to shut later this year, with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. PSDARs set out long-term site restoration plans for the stations after they shut down, and their filing is one of the final regulatory steps before plant closure.
 

Taiwan Power Company has submitted an application to the Atomic Energy Council to shut down the two-unit Maanshan nuclear power plant. Under Taiwan's nuclear phase-out policy, its power reactors will be decommissioned as their 40-year operating licences expire. The phase-out will be completed with the closure of Maanshan unit 2 in 2025.

PreussenElektra has received the second and final permit needed for the dismantling of the Unterweser nuclear power plant, while RWE Nuclear has received approval for its so-called 'sub-project 2' for the dismantling of the Lingen nuclear power plant. Both approvals were issued by the Lower Saxony Ministry for the Environment, Energy, Building and Climate Protection.

The US Army Corps of Engineers with the Alaska State Office and other parties has finalised an agreement on how to preserve the history of a mothballed nuclear reactor at Fort Greely, Alaska. Final decommissioning of the 20.2 MW (thermal) SM-1A pressurised water reactor, which operated from 1962 to 1972, is due to begin next year.

Taiwan Power Company today announced the permanent closure of unit 1 at its Guosheng nuclear power plant. The 985 MWe boiling water reactor had been scheduled to be decommissioned in late December this year, but a lack of used fuel storage capacity has forced the state-owned company to take the unit offline early in preparation for a major overhaul of the facility.

The UK government and EDF have agreed improved arrangements to safely and efficiently decommission Britain’s seven Advanced Gas Reactor nuclear power plants that are scheduled to reach the end of their operational lives this decade. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said the deal, which was signed yesterday, will save the UK taxpayer about GBP1 billion (USD1.4 billion), as EDF and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority forge a new partnership.

The 70-year decommissioning programme of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, including long-term management of residual waste, provides a good basis for future effective implementation, an International Atomic Energy Agency team of experts has concluded. The team made several recommendations to support JAEA in increasing the effectiveness of its decommissioning activities, including in the area of waste disposal.

The current approaches to assessing financial adequacy for decommissioning and radioactive waste management - which are based on the linear discounting of estimated future costs - should be complemented with a broader "circular" approach, a new OECD Nuclear Energy Agency report proposes. This approach, it says, reflects that changes of different kinds will play out between today's decisions and future funding needs.