Advance preparation for the decommissioning of facilities. CSN Instruction IS-45

The decommissioning of nuclear facilities is a technical-administrative process made by a set of activities whose ultimate objective is the removal of such facilities from regulatory control and the release of the sites for conventional uses. The regulatory control and supervision of the first decommissioning projects has posed a challenge that has derived in the acquisition of a vast experience, which consequently has led to a process of regulatory harmonization.

The result of this harmonizing process is the recent publication of the Instruction of the Nuclear Safety Council IS-45 “Instruction on safety requirements during the design, construction and operation phases of nuclear facilities and fuel cycle facilities, to provide for their dismantling and, where appropriate, their dismantling and closure”. This Instruction regulates one of the first lessons learned; the need for a preliminary decommissioning plan before the end of the operating life of these facilities, to provide for optimum decommissioning process in the future.