Financial Aspects of Decommissioning

Abstract

European Commission adopted recently two proposals of Directives designed to pave the way for a Community approach to the safety of nuclear power plants and the processing of radioactive waste. Nuclear safety cannot be guaranteed without making available adequate financial resources. With regard, in particular, to the decommissioning of nuclear facilities, the Directive defines the Community rules for the establishment, management and use of decommissioning funds allocated to a body with legal personality separate from that of the nuclear operator. In order to comply with the acquis communautaire, Romanian Government issued the Emergency Ordinance no. 11/2003 which set up the National Agency for Radioactive Waste (ANDRAD) and soon will be established the financial mechanism for raising the necessary funds. Societatea Nationala “Nuclearelectrica” S.A. operates, through one of its branches, Cernavoda NPP Unit 1 and has to prepare its decommissioning strategy and to analyze the options to assure the financing for covering the future costs. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the financial systems’ mechanisms to the satisfaction of the nuclear operator obligations, according to the disbursement schedule foreseen by decommissioning projects . The availability of cash to pay for all the decommissioning expenditure must be foreseen by setting up assets and establishing a suitable financing plan. The different practices of assets management shall be presented in this paper on the basis of the international experience. Some calculation samples shall be given as an illustration.