Nuclear decommissioning in Brazil and China: regulatory development, incompleteness and future synergy

Abstract

Abstract The law and regulation of nuclear infrastructure decommissioning is developing worldwide. At the international level, safety standards for the decommissioning process were established under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which also encourages international co-operation and gives expert advice for Member States’ projects. Advanced jurisdictions such as the UK, US and Japan have made substantial progress in the elaboration of national legislation covering issues related to the risks for safety and the environment. This article aims at assessing the Brazilian and Chinese efforts, achievements and challenges in the establishment of national decommissioning legal regimes using the analytical lenses developed by probing into the strengths exhibited by selected advanced jurisdictions’ decommissioning regulations and experiences, in namely the UK, USA and Japan. As a result, the structural perspective developed enables the assessment of the effectiveness of the decommissioning framework of jurisdictions at an earlier stage. Brazil and China have just started to build their national decommissioning nuclear power plant regimes. Besides sharing a common nuclear power plant decommissioning regulatory momentum, both countries’ asymmetric capacities in the technology sector can be reciprocally combined to create a mutually beneficial relationship.