Status and Challenges in D&D of Nuclear Facilities in NEA Countries: Activities of the NEA Working Party on Decommissioning and Dismantling

OECD Member countries will be faced increasingly with the task of decommissioning and dismantling nuclear facilities with a view to final release of sites. The OECD/NEA Working Party on Management of Materials from Decommissioning and Dismantling (WPDD) is tasked with keeping under review policy, strategy, and the regulatory aspects of decommissioning and dismantling of obsolete nuclear installations up to and including the ultimate release of sites. Reflections and products directed both to specialists, to opinion formers and to the interested public are being generated and released in hard copy or web-based. The activities of the WPDD are reviewed in this paper. Emphasis is placed on the main points of a recent publication that provides, in non-specialist terminology, a concise overview of the status of D&D of nuclear facilities in NEA Member countries.