Do you know the IAEA outlook on decommissioning strategies and plans? What would you say are the non-technical aspects that have to be taken into consideration in the decommissioning plan? What trends in the field are to be anticipated in the future? Since Nuclear Decommissioning is undergoing fast and exciting technological changes, we can be excited what might be coming. In an exclusive interview with Vladimir Michal from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) we talked about these and many more questions. Find out what we talked about more by reading this interview: http://bit.ly/Vladimir_Michal_Interview

1. IAEA’s Vladimir Michal on Decommissioning Strategies and Plans
Within the Department of Nuclear Energy and the Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology Division of
the International Atomic Energy Agency, Vladimir Michal is the Team Leader of the Decommissioning
and Environmental Remediation Team, Waste Technology Section. At the 3rd International Nuclear
Decommissioning Summit in January in Berlin, Vladimir Michal will be speaking on “Immediate vs.
Deferred Dismantling – Pre-analysis against post-problems”. Before the event takes place, IQPC’s Michael
Lenz had the chance to talk to Vladimir Michal about the decommissioning activities supported by the
IAEA, different decommissioning strategies, as well as political factors and environmental concerns. Read
the full interview with our speaker here!
Michael Lenz: Mr. Michal, we are very much
looking forward to having you at the International
Decommissioning event and once again thank
you for having this interview.
You will be giving an insight into relevant
technical aspects of decommissioning and
further you will provide us with an overview of
decommissioning activities supported by the
IAEA. Could you please tell us a little about your
work with the IAEA?
Vladimir Michal: In the IAEA I am in the Nuclear
Energy Department as an Acting Head of Waste
Technology Section focused on various technical
aspects of radioactive waste management,
decommissioning and environmental remediation.
At the same time I am also a Team Leader responsible
for decommissioning and environmental remediation
issues. Our activities are focused on the development
of thematically focused technical publications and
we are very much involved in the implementation
of technical cooperation projects to provide support
for various countries in the world. We established an
International Decommissioning Network to support
decommissioning programme worldwide. We can
also offer to our Member States various kinds of peer
review services and many other supporting activities
coordinated with the IAEA Departments of Nuclear
Safety & Security and Technical Cooperation. Maybe
this first overview is enough for the beginning of the
interview.
Michael Lenz: You said that a big part of the IAEA’s
task is to analyze trends and movements. Would
you say that there have been some very clear
emerging trends in the last decade and which
ones would be the most important ones in that
regard?
Vladimir Michal: We can see trends that special
advanced technology, I mean remotely operated
robotic technology, is used in the difficult cases of
decommissioning. These are, for example, facilities
that were shut down after an accident or old legacy
facilities that exist in several countries.
So this is one trend, and from the other side we
can also see a more enhanced use of a variety of
commercially available technologies in the case of
nuclear facilities that were shut down after the normal
operation and will be decommissioned in a standard
www.nuclear-decommissioning.com
Expert Interview