Costs

The legislation in the countries with nuclear power plants stipulates that the funding to finance the cost of decommissioning be set aside by the operators during the operating life of the plants, so that they may be certain to be available when the plants cease operating.

Even following use of financial leverage (due to the time gap, in the order of several decades, between the time when the funds are set aside and when they are used) the impact of decommissioning on the overall cost of nuclear power generation is quite limited: in the region of 5%.

Unlike the previous generation of reactors, the reactors that are currently being built are designed bearing in mind the decommissioning needs, in order to simplify and reduce the environmental impact of the related operations; it is expected that technological developments may also substantially reduce the costs currently envisaged.