Goals and Procedures Evaluation in Decommissioning Planning

Abstract

For the past 50 years, the United States and the rest of the world have been harnessing the power of the atom to deter aggression, to power communities, to fight disease, and to fulfill other needs. Current defense-oriented laboratories and production facilities face closing and decommissioning. In fact, by the year 2030, all currently operating nuclear facilities will be closed. Decommissioning projects involve great risk and tend to be very complicated, particularly once field operations commence. However, most often, very little consideration is given to the actual field operations during decommissioning planning, and this leads to large cost and schedule overruns. This paper creates a framework to help decision makers evaluate construction-related information at each step of the decommissioning planning process. Three levels of planning, namely, project goal setting, component goal setting, and procedure evaluation are considered. Project goal setting and certain aspects of component goal setting can be completed using information from past projects. However, during procedure evaluation, detailed analysis on all project-specific characteristics is essential. The final step proposed in procedures evaluation is a detailed cost/benefit analysis.