Lessons Learned from the Decommissioning of the Belgian Pressurized Water Test Reactor BR-3

Abstract

The BR3 plant was operated with the main objective of testing advanced PWR fuels under irradiation conditions similar to those encountered in large commercial PWR plants. In 1989, it was selected as one of the pilot projects of the European Commission for its R&D programme on Decommissioning of nuclear installations. With the decommissioning of the BR3 reactor, the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre SCK CEN gained a lot of experiences in the field of decommissioning. This paper describes the main phases carried out in the decommissioning project up till now and will discuss the main lessons to learn.