IAEA - International Atomic Energy Agency

10/20/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 10/20/2021 16:23

Decommissioning Small Medical, Industrial and Research Facilities: IAEA Project Focuses on Safety

Decommissioning a nuclear installation or facility is an essential step in ensuring safe closure of its lifecycle, so that the site can be reused. It involves safely dismantling the facility, managing all radioactive and non-radioactive materials and waste arising from decommissioning and ensuring workers, the public and the environment are protected from radiation and from associated non-radiological hazards. This process happens at large installations, such as nuclear power plants, as well as at small medical, industrial and research facilities, and depending on the size and complexity of the facility, it can take from several months to several decades to complete. Helping countries improve their infrastructure for the safe decommissioning of small facilities is the key focus of an international IAEA project-MIRDEC (Decommissioning of Small Medical, Industrial and Research Facilities) ­ launched in 2018, and based on the IAEA's Specific Safety Guide No. SSG-49.

"While international cooperation in decommissioning often focuses on large nuclear facilities, such as nuclear power plants and research reactors, most facilities worldwide to be decommissioned are smaller in size and less complex, such as laboratories, diagnostic radiology and radiotherapy hospital departments, industrial facilities using radiation sources," said Vladan Ljubenov, Acting Head of the IAEA Decommissioning and Remediation Unit.

"This project covers critical areas of attention for small facilities, for example, having appropriate regulatory frameworks, characterization of facilities, management of radiation sources and radioactive waste, and how to safely apply decommissioning techniques."