The Decommissioning of the CIEMAT Nuclear Research Center

CIEMAT, formerly the Nuclear Energy Board (JEN), is the Spanish Centre for Energy-Related, Environmental and Technological Research. Located in Madrid, it used to have more than 60 facilities in operation that allowed a wide range of activities in the nuclear field and in the application of ionising radiations. Particularly significant among these facilities were the research reactors, particle accelerators, hot cells and nuclear fuel manufacturing and processing plants. At present the centre, which is authorised as a single nuclear facility, includes various installations, some of them are now obsolete, shut down and in dismantling phases. In 2000 CIEMAT started the “Integrated plan for the improvement of CIEMAT installations (PIMIC)”, which includes activities for the decontamination, dismantling and rehabilitation of obsolete facilities. This paper will describe the decommissioning process carried out at CIEMAT Research Centre, and will review the key aspects of the project, including site remediation and release.