Take stock of progress and look ahead

Abstract

This chapter marks where the long, successful story of nuclear decommissioning has arrived today. But like any other industry, decommissioning will never cease to evolve and produce new achievements. Driving forces will be the development of parallel industries (e.g. electronics, robotics), new social expectations, political priorities, and cost constraints making a virtue of necessity. This chapter highlights a few technical and organizational areas that still present unsolved issues or exhibit room for improvement. The author considers that the section of this chapter named “the “cultural” side of decommissioning is perhaps the last frontier and the last hurdle to further progress in decommissioning: it has to do with the soft elements of human mindset, which are difficult to see, measure or correct.