Korea Leads International Standards for Nuclear Power Plant Decommissioning... Moves to Secure 500 Trillion Won Market

ISO New Work Item Proposal Approved
Aiming for International Standard Establishment by 2027
Development of Nine-Series Standards Covering Decommissioning Planning, Waste Management, and Site Restoration

South Korea is leading the effort to establish international standards in the field of nuclear power plant decommissioning, aiming to secure a dominant position in the global nuclear decommissioning market.

The National Institute of Technology and Standards under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on the 19th that the 'nuclear power plant decommissioning' standard proposal, which South Korea submitted to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 2023, was recently approved as a New Work Item Proposal (NP) after discussions by the ISO Technical Committee (TC85 - Nuclear Energy).

This standard proposal was adopted with the support of nine member countries, including the United States, China, and Japan. South Korea will serve as the project leader, taking the lead in the overall process of establishing the international standard.

The proposal includes general requirements that apply to all stages of nuclear power plant decommissioning—ranging from terminology definitions to planning, implementation, and management. From this day, the process of gathering feedback from each country will begin, and the government aims to establish the international standard (IS) by December 2027.

The international standard will undergo several stages following the approval of the New Work Item Proposal (NP): Working Draft (WD), Committee Draft (CD), Draft International Standard (DIS), and Final Draft International Standard (FDIS), before final publication.

In addition to this general standard, the National Institute of Technology and Standards plans to sequentially develop nine detailed international standards covering the entire nuclear decommissioning process. Specifically, these include: ▲decommissioning planning ▲radioactive waste management ▲facility characterization analysis ▲safety assessment ▲decommissioning work management ▲radioactive contamination removal and demolition ▲radiation protection and monitoring ▲release criteria application ▲site restoration.

Notably, experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are also participating in this standardization project. The government expects that enhancing alignment with international nuclear safety standards will enable South Korea-led international standards to become the de facto global benchmarks in the nuclear decommissioning industry.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), by 2050, more than 400 nuclear power plants are expected to be decommissioned worldwide, with the market size projected to exceed 500 trillion won.

Kim Daeja, Director of the National Institute of Technology and Standards, stated, "Until now, South Korea has been in the position of adopting international standards in the construction and operation fields of nuclear power plants, but with the establishment of this standard, we are now at the forefront of leading international standards in decommissioning. We will actively spearhead not only the ISO process but also the establishment of de facto international standards such as those set by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) to further strengthen the export competitiveness of K-nuclear power plants."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.