In the
framework of the European Forum for Science and Industry, the EU Joint Research
Centre has organized on 11 September 2012 a roundtable discussion on "Scientific
support for nuclear decommissioning".
One of the
main speakers was State Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Science,
Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic Mr. Stefan Chudoba.
„The
current state is that there are around 133 nuclear power plants in operation
and in the EU more than 45 should be decommissioned until 2025. It is a huge
opportunity to be seized and a huge business “ he noted in an interview
for Slovak press agency TASR.
During the
meeting it was concluded the importance of further sharing of experiences in
the emerging decommissioning market, as the identification and dissemination of
relevant information will strengthen the know-how of the whole European Union. You
may find the JRC Roundtable presentations, incl. the one of Slovak state secretary,
here.
Chudoba confirmed
that Slovakia is able to prepare qualified people for liquidation of the nuclear
power plants (NPPs). He mentioned experienced research and educational institutions
such as Slovak University of Technology, Faculty of Natural Science at
Comenius University or Slovak Academy of Sciences.
Practical experience
He emphasized
Slovak practical experience in decommissioning at two establishments.
NPP
Bohunice A1 started operation in 1972 but due to serious accident during fuel
assembly change in February 1977 it had to be shut down. Its decommissioning
started in 1979 and is supposed to end in 2033. According to Chudoba the
accident at A1 was a source for nuclear research and development of the nuclear
industry and know-how.
Two units
of NPP Bohunice V1 started operation in 1978, respectively 1980, but were “pre-maturely”
closed as a pre-condition agreed in EU accession treaty of Slovakia. First unit
was shut down at the end of 2006, the second two years later. The
decommissioning started in 2011 and will last until 2025.
The
European Commission has created Bohunice International Decommissioning Support
Fund (BIDSF) administered by EBRD with a total budget of €440 million. So far €76.5
million has been spent. Another €280 million should be used from National Nuclear
Fund. The total costs of V1 decommissioning have been estimated at €1.1
billion. Therefore Slovakia is pushing for more funding from the EU multiannual
financial framework (2014-2020).
Further
cooperation
Chudoba also
mentioned companies with strong position in nuclear business, namely VUJE and
JAVYS, and several projects of development of best technologies with Slovak
participation. These include ALLEGRO (High-temperature gas-cooled fast reactor
providing closed fuel cycle), ITER (Nuclear fusion reactor), preparation for decommissioning
of Armenian NPP Medzamor through previous EU TACIS program or purely Slovak research
on conditional release of materials from decommissioning process into the
environment in the form of steel railway tracks (CONRELMAT).
The state
secretary pointed out that Slovakia has selected six areas of science where
Slovakia has a strong chance to prove successful and nuclear energy, security
and decommissioning is definitely one of them. During the JRC Roundtable Slovak
delegation was in fruitful discussions especially with French and Italian
experts.
France has
58 nuclear units in operation. Up to 24 of them are preparing for decommissioning
therefore Chudoba believes that after years of research cooperation the Slovak experts
might apply their knowledge also in practical decommissioning.
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