Decommissioning Challenges

International Conference on Decommissioning Challenges, Avignon, France, 28 September to 2 October, 2008

Introduction

This conference was organized by the French Nuclear Energy Society (Société Française d’Energie Nucléaire, SFEN) as their 4th such biennial conference. The main theme was to assess the maturity of the nuclear decommissioning process. The programme reached national decision-makers, operators, programme managers, specialist contractors and researchers. The total number attending was estimated at around 330. The event was supported by scientific poster sessions and by stands manned by various manufacturers active in the field.

Scope

The attendance of two people from Iraq was designed to enable their access to up to date decommissioning methods and to give them a public opportunity to appeal for international help with the Iraq Decommissioning Programme. The Iraqis gave a presentation on prioritizing clean-up work across the full range of their former nuclear sites. Contacts were made with various people and organizations that could assist. These included:

Commisariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA) who have been decommissioning their LAMA facility which is similar to that at Al-Tuwaitha
A private firm who have supported AREVA and CEA in their decommissioning work by applying intelligent mechanical decontamination methods, and who would be willing to work in Iraq
German specialists in metal melting technology of the kind that Iraq require to sort out their issues with radioactively contaminated scrap metal
French instrumentation experts who have the understanding what the Iraqis require to undertake the extensive radiological characterization programme that they need

Capacity building

The Executive Director of SFEN, who offered to provide ongoing contacts to the Iraqis. As a consequence of discussions, AREVA also offered direct training to the Iraqi group.

Certainly the work of the Iraq Decommissioning Programme was made more visible to the wider decommissioning community and resulted in a number of key contacts being made.

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