Decommissioning commercial nuclear power plants. Publications No. 80-6

The decommissioning of nuclear power plants is an exceedingly complex subject. One can quickly become immersed (and lost) in the myriad technical details. In this paper decommissioning is approached, not as a strictly technological problem but as a policy issue. Technical aspects of decommissioning are dealt with to the extent necessary to present the basic technological options and to highlight important policy questions. The goal is to provide a useful orientation to decommissioning for those who wish to understand and deal with these questions.