30 Jun IAEA gathers knowledge on radiation protection

One of Danish Decommissioning's health physicists contributes with experience in decommissioning reactor DR2.

M Most of the world's nuclear reactors were built in the 1960s and 1970s, so it will not be many years before they have to be decommissioned and decommissioned. This kind of work requires protection against radiation, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has launched a project to gather the preliminary experience. The project kicked off with a workshop in Vienna from 16-19 June 2014.

At the workshop, 16 participants from nearly as many countries discussed the key challenges in protecting employees during reactor demolition.

Danish Decommissioning is well-known internationally for its expertise in radiation protection, and health physicist Thommy Larsen was invited to present our experiences with the decommissioning and dismantling of the DR2 research reactor. The reactor was a pool-type light water reactor, meaning it was open at the top, allowing visibility of the reactor core through seven meters of water. It was decommissioned between 2006 and 2008.

International experiences benefit DD, as we are the first in Denmark to undertake decommissioning tasks. Quite often, we find that companies worldwide have encountered similar problems and have identified solutions that can be reused more or less directly by DD.