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Licensing procedure for decommissioning

For the decommissioning, safe enclosure and dismantling of a nuclear power plant, a licence is required pursuant to Section 7, paragraph 3 of the Atomic Energy Act. In general, decommissioning projects comprise several phases, with a separate licence being granted for each phase. The proposed measures must be described in detail in the first decommissioning licence (Section 19b, paragraph 1 of the Nuclear Licensing Procedure Ordinance – AtVfV). Broadly speaking, the licensing procedure is based on the legal provisions applicable to the granting of licences pursuant to Section 7, paragraph 1 of the Atomic Energy Act. In addition, the Guide to the Decommissioning, the Safe Enclosure and the Dismantling of Facilities or Parts Thereof as defined in §7 of the Atomic Energy Act (Decommissioning Guideline), which was produced by the German Environment Ministry in conjunction with the competent licensing and supervisory authorities of the Länder and adopted on 17 June 2016, is used for reference. The Decommissioning Guide summarises all aspects of relevance to the licensing and supervisory procedure and proposes methodologies to be used during the decommissioning and dismantling of nuclear power plants. On 16 March 2015, the ESK issued its Recommendation: Guidelines for the Decommissioning of Nuclear Facilities as its own set of criteria to evaluate all measures after final cessation of the installation’s operation until the achievement of the decommissioning objective.