This panel discussed the worldwide D&D issues at NPPs. With the recent drop in gas prices and reaction to the events of Fukushima, the nuclear renaissance in Europe and North America has stalled. Older NPPs are finding it harder to remain cost competitive. In the US especially, the energy economics has tilted substantially towards natural gas for electricity production. As a result, several NPPs have recently shutdown much earlier than initially planned. Projections show a steeper upswing in the D&D of NPPs worldwide. A less noticed trend has been that the NPPs can no longer apply the ”wait & see” strategy and use “deferred dismantling” as an option. Many factors including state intervention, D&D fund status, economic factors and public interest are driving the application of the “immediate dismantlement” option. Another less noticed trend has been that experienced personnel have been retiring in large numbers and the “Decommissioning Cavalry” is shrinking quite rapidly.

Panelists include: Jeff Hays, Vice President of Decommissioning, AREVA; Claudio Pescatore, Principal Administrator, OECD-NEA Decommissioning (France), Bruce Hinkley, Vice President of Decommissioning, HOLTEC; Tom LaGuardia, Managing Member, LaGuardia & Associates; and Laurence Piketty, Director of Nuclear Clean-up and Decommissioning; CEA (France).