From June 4 to 8, 2018, INGECID attended a course on decommissioning nuclear facilities organized by the Gómez Pardo Foundation, affiliated to the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

The Juan Manuel Kindelán Chair of the Nuclear Safety Council also contributed to the course, held in the Foundation's auditorium. It was aimed at both professionals in the nuclear sector and doctoral students in the field of nuclear engineering.

Its goal was to provide an overview of different aspects of the decommissioning of nuclear power plants and other facilities related to the nuclear fuel cycle.

The program included presentations given by key professionals in the field from entities including ENRESA, the Nuclear Safety Council, companies involved in decommissioning projects, and academia. More than 70 attendees participated in the event.

The program included presentations on a wide range of topics:

• Radioactive contamination inside a nuclear power plant with PWR or BWR reactors.
• Licensing and regulation of decommissioning and closure processes.
• Activities prior to plant decommissioning.
• Risk control.
• Conditioning non-conforming historical waste.
• Planning, organization and management of decommissioning projects.
• Materials management and waste conditioning.
• Regulatory control of the declassification of waste materials.
• Cutting and demolition techniques.
• Uranium mining. Closure of concentrate factories.
• Lessons learned and limitations based on experiences in different plants.

The sessions were complemented by a technical visit on Thursday June 7 to the José Cabrera Nuclear Power Plant to learn about the decommissioning and closure plan, the current situation and the next stages of the project.

These sessions were of special interest to ENGECID staff, promoting training and research in the fields of nuclear safety, radiation protection, and nuclear power plant decommissioning processes, and providing an opportunity to network with other professionals in the sector.

For more information about INGECID’s services for the nuclear energy sector  click here