The organisational aspects of decommissioning and legacy management refer to all administrative actions taken to address organisational structure, program and project management, costing and funding, commercial considerations, knowledge management, stakeholder involvement, and societal impact considerations.
Successful outcomes require thoughtful development of project plans that are then executed through deft administrative management. As decommissioning of nuclear facilities and sites involve long-term efforts, the organisational aspects of each individual project are particularly important, as they can have a profound effect on the overall project plan as it unfolds over time. Examining the organisational aspects decommissioning and legacy management involves the study of:
As many nuclear power plants will reach the end of their operating lives over the next 20 years, decommissioning is an increasingly important topic for governments, regulators and industries. The Committee on Decommissioning of Nuclear Installations and Legacy Management (CDLM), established in 2018, has been working to identify various issues that should be considered during the management of a wide range of nuclear decommissioning projects. In addition to the Expert Group on Costing for Decommissioning of Nuclear Installations and Legacy Management (EGCDL), the CDLM will establish further bodies in the coming years in accordance with pertinent topics to facilitate the exchange of experience, practices and information.
In previous years, before the CDLM was created, the former Working Party on Decommissioning and Dismantling (WPDD), under the aegis of the Radioactive Waste Management Committee (RWMC), addressed issues related to nuclear decommissioning. In particular, the Decommissioning Cost Estimation Group (DCEG) conducted a series of studies in the field of decommissioning cost estimation and compiled their unique findings in several reports. Recognising the importance of this issue and acknowledging the increasing interest of member countries, the CDLM established the EGCDL to continue the work accomplished by the DCEG, to further promote and update exchange in this area, and as a means of incorporating legacy management issues into the programme of work.