Reactor decommissioning sites could become prime locations for future advanced nuclear technology, an executive at the nation’s foremost nuclear industry group said this week.
“In the past, I think many viewed decommissioning as a sign of the end of the commercial nuclear industry that’s inexorably approaching,” said Bruce Montgomery, director of the Nuclear Energy Institute’s (NEI) decommissioning and used fuel program at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Regulatory Information Conference Thursday. “What I suggest is that we have an opportunity here to show the public an attribute of our industry that’s unique and distinguishes us from others.”
That attribute, Montgomery said, is that decommissioning projects leave former reactor sites in “pristine, park-like condition” which provide fertile ground for building advanced reactors.
Meanwhile, NEI has a big year planned, Montgomery said. In particular, they’re working on a comprehensive industry guidance license termination planning and execution that he said he hopes will “provide constructive input to the process.”
“I propose that we look at decommissioning as the inevitable journey we’re all going to have to take sooner or later,” Montgomery said. “We need to understand that what we’re looking at here is the nuclear circle of life.”
