Decommissioning
The nuclear energy industry needs to be ready to manage “an unprecedented rate” of decommissioning with almost 200 of the 434 reactors that were operating commercially at the end of 2013 to be retired by 2040, a report by the International Energy Agency said.
World Energy Outlook 2014 (WEO) said “the vast majority” of these reactor retirements will be in the European Union, the US, Russia and Japan.
The industry will need to manage this unprecedented rate of decommissioning, while also building substantial new capacity for those reactors that are replaced, WEO said.
The IEA estimates the cost of decommissioning plants that are retired to be more than $100 billion.