08 May The Near Future at Danish Decommissioning

New hires, milestones, and structure are some of the tools that will ensure the necessary progress at Danish Decommissioning.

Within 50 years, Danish Decommissioning's work on the Risø peninsula must be completed, and the final repository for Danish radioactive waste operational.

However, even though 2073 may seem far in the future, it helps define the daily work carried out at Danish Decommissioning, and especially the planning that precedes the many tasks that must be completed before Danish Decommissioning's work at Risø is finished.

Achieving this goal requires resources, and, most importantly, skilled employees.

Without these resources, we will never achieve our objective, and therefore, it is essential that Danish Decommissioning consistently assigns the right personnel to projects to meet these goals.

Further Progress with New Structure
In 2021, Danish Decommissioning underwent a significant structural change, where the management team was expanded to achieve a greater degree of involvement, cross-organisational collaboration, and to create a more efficient organisation, which, in turn, was intended to result in more effective task resolution.

In 2023, we made a minor adjustment to the organisation again, dividing the operations group into two distinct groups: Operations & Waste Management and Executing Decommissioning, each with its own manager.  Concurrently, the groups have become more specialised.

Kenn-Ulrik Sørensen, Head of Operations and Waste Management, discusses the new structure.

“The new structure serves multiple purposes, but primarily, it is intended to ensure the necessary progress towards the overall objective of completion by 2073 at the latest. Concurrently, it reflects that as an organisation, we are continuously evolving, just as our tasks do. Therefore, it is natural to examine how we can mitigate vulnerabilities while simultaneously functioning organisationally in a manner that reflects our responsibilities.”

Increased Resources for Task Resolution
As a natural consequence of Danish Decommissioning's increased focus on project progress, there is a need to recruit more personnel.

Consequently, more job postings than before have been issued by Danish Decommissioning, as there has simply been a need to plan proactively regarding staff recruitment.

“We require additional resources to manage our responsibilities. Concurrently, we have had vacant positions for a period due to various considerations, and we are now in the process of refilling them.”

The increased staffing is also due to an upcoming period requiring even more activities, which simply necessitates more personnel.

Furthermore, Kenn-Ulrik Sørensen highlights a working condition at Danish Decommissioning that is uncommon in many other craft-based enterprises.

“We operate under the condition that many tasks require two employees; thus, if one person is unavailable, it can impact an entire project. This makes us vulnerable, and therefore, we must have additional resources to draw upon.”

A Complex Future
When working in a field that no one in Danish history has previously engaged with, it presents complex challenges that must be resolved progressively – we must write the manuals ourselves.

One of many conclusions we have reached, applicable to all decommissioning projects at Risø, is that complexity increases as a project becomes more advanced.

Consider, for example, the Decommissioning of DR3, where the concrete progressively becomes more difficult to cut as we approach the lower section, simply because an increasing number of steel spheres are embedded in the concrete.

Or, on the Hot Cell project, where the cells gradually exhibit increasingly higher radiation levels.

This, in turn, means that projects simply require more resources over time, and therefore, it is crucial to continuously anticipate this development, for instance, through new hires.

Welcome to Danish Decommissioning
According to Kenn-Ulrik Sørensen, the future for Danish Decommissioning appears promising, especially with regard to the new personnel whom the organisation looks forward to welcoming.

Professionally, we have a diverse staff composition, and when recruiting, we seek individuals who can address immediate needs. It is about competencies, and a willingness to take responsibility and make a difference. Concurrently, new employees offer a natural opportunity to view matters from a fresh perspective, and combined with the skilled and experienced individuals we already have in this field, there is indeed fertile ground for an exciting future.

A future that, by 2073 at the latest, is to culminate in Denmark's first final repository for radioactive waste, but which already today places demands on Danish Decommissioning's daily work, where we devise unique solutions to complex problems.