ESTIMATING THE COSTS FOR JAPAN’S JPDR PROJECT

Abstract

There has been an international flavor of cooperation in the commercial development of nuclear power. This cooperation is most strongly established with the development of strategies for decommissioning. Many countries are beginning this phase at about the same time; Japan, Canada, Germany, and the United States all are involved in dismantlement projects. This chapter, along with the next four chapters, addresses various aspects of the methodological approaches being developed to estimate decommissioning costs. Each country has adopted a different strategy for reactor decommissioning, taking its political and technical situations into consideration. Japan also has its own strategy of reactor decommissioning, reflecting the geographic and economic positions peculiar to Japan. The Japan Power Demonstration Reactor (JPDR) decommissioning program is in the process of establishing a decommissioning data base and a cost estimation methodology, as well as developing new technology for reactor decommissioning. Various information about the JPDR dismantling has been accumulated in the decommissioning data base, which will be used for: (1) planning future decommissioning of commercial nuclear power reactors; (2) verifying the developed code system for management of reactor decommissioning; and (3) managing the ongoing JPDR dismantling. The computer code system developed in this program is expected to contribute to studying cost estimation and the optimization of decommissioning plans for commercial nuclear power reactors.