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The relatively low capital cost and contributions to mitigating global warming have favoured the continuous construction and operation of nuclear power plants (NPPs) across the world. One critical phase in the operation of nuclear plants for ensuring the safety and security of radioactive products and by-products is decommissioning. With the advent of digital twinning in the building information modelling (BIM) methodology, efficiency and safety can be improved from context-focus access to regulations pertaining to demolition of structures and the cleaning-up of radioactivity inherent in nuclear stations. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to propose a BIM-driven framework to achieve a more regulation-aware and safer decommissioning of nuclear power plants.

The framework considers task requirements, and landscape and environmental factors in modelling demolition scenarios that characterise decommissioning processes. The framework integrates decommissioning rules/regulations in a BIM linked non-structured query system to model items and decommissioning tasks, which are implemented based on context-focussed retrieval of decommissioning rules and regulations. The concept’s efficacy is demonstrated using example cases of digitalised NPPs.

This approach contributes to enhancing improvements in nuclear plant decommissioning with potential for appropriate activity sequencing, risk reduction and ensuring safety.

A BIM-driven framework hinged on querying non-structured databases to provide context-focussed access to nuclear rules and regulations and to aiding decommissioning is new.

The purpose of this paper was to study the unfolding of an urgent and extensive decommissioning program in Sweden, focusing on the public’s reactions and their arguments when opposing the decommissioning activities.

The public’s responses were studied through local media. Its content was surveyed and divided into actions and arguments. The arguments were further analyzed and categorized into inductively developed themes.

Protest activities, such as demonstrations, meetings and petitions, were not coordinated, but mostly carried out for withdrawals of unique services and services in remote areas. The public questioned the decision makers’ information, calculations and competence, the adequacy of the consequence analyses and whether the decommissioning activities would lead to any real savings. Patient and public safety, the vulnerable in society, and effects on the local areas were important topics. Thus, it seems the decision makers did not fully succeed in communicating the demonstrable benefits or create clarity of the rationales for decommissioning the particular services. Furthermore, it seems the public has a more inclusive approach to health services and their value compared to decision makers that need to keep the budget.

Decommissioning is an emerging field of research, and this study of the unfolding of an urgent and extensive decommissioning program contributes with evidence that may improve decommissioning policy and practice. The study illustrates that it may be possible to implement a decommissioning program despite public protest, but that the longer-term effects on the health system’s legitimacy need to be studied.

This paper describes the design development and testing of the remotely operated equipment which will be deployed to decommission the redundant Caesium Extraction Plant located at the British Nuclear Fuels plc Sellafield site in Cumbria, UK. The radioactive environment in which the project has to be carried out presents a number of unique challenges to the engineers involved. To carry out the project extensive new facilities are to be constructed. It is from these facilities that the Decommissioning Machine (DCM) will be deployed to remove the equipment located within the Caesium Plant. The DCM will be operated from a separate control room and observed by CCTV. Construction of the new facility is nearing completion with decommissioning operations due to start in year 2000.

This study aims to investigate the collective perception regarding the future of offshore platforms and frame the main categories of meanings associated by the community with the investigated phenomenon.

A data driven approach has been conducted. The collection of the peoples’ opinions has been realized on two specific social network communities as follows: Twitter and Instagram. The text mining processes carried out a sentiment and a cluster analysis.

The sentiment analysis of the most frequent words has been shown. The following four main homogeneous categories of words are emerged in relation to the decommissioning of offshore platforms: technological areas, green governance (GG), circular economy and socio-economic sphere.

The alternative use of the offshore platforms, including tourism initiatives, aquaculture, alternative energy generation, hydrogen storage and environmental research, could improve the resilience of communities by offering the development of new jobs and the growth of local and innovative green businesses.

The adoption of a circular model and GG initiatives aims to limit the input of resources and energy, minimize waste and losses, adopt a sustainable approach and realize new social and territorial value.

The analysis underlines the importance to adopt a systems perspective, which takes into account the social, economic and environmental system as a whole, the different phenomena that occur and the variety of categories of stakeholders, from users to local governments that participate in the territorial development.

The primary purpose of the present research is to assess the people's awareness level of End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) management in India. The study proposes to estimate the projected annual demand for the new ELVs over 15 years from 2020–2035 and assess the growth rate in new annual ELVs.

Employing a mixed method study, the authors obtained secondary data from the annual reports from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). In Study 1, the authors employed log-linear regression and compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) to compute the growth rates for these projections. After that, the authors collected the primary data of vehicle users (n = 920) using survey methodology, both open and closed-ended items completed the test battery (Study 2A and 2B). While open-ended items were analyzed qualitatively, the closed-ended items were analyzed quantitatively.

The estimation of annual ELV estimates and their cumulative figures over 15 years determined the market size in the future, outlining the importance of ELV management. The qualitative approach helped deduce the people's most prominent sentiments regarding decommissioning and the ELV management process. From the primary analysis, the authors concluded that people perceived the ELV management process positively; however, there are areas where the government's specific attention is warranted.

In this study, the authors have outlined how specific measures in ELV management can result in a sustainable circular economy. Additionally, the authors have designed a test battery to understand people's perception, which is first of its kind effort to understand what people think about ELV management. Studies globally considering people's perception of ELV can employ the test battery designed for this study. Additionally, countries that have ELV management in nascent stages can refer to India's experience with ELV management and the related people's perception.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the uses of robots in the nuclear power industry, with an emphasis on newer developments and applications.

Following an introduction to the nuclear industry, this paper considers robotic applications in two areas: test and inspection and decommissioning. A range of products, applications and case histories are discussed.

It is shown that robots are used widely for test and inspection and decommissioning tasks. The majority are highly specialised and are frequently produced by specialist nuclear engineering companies. The main robotic test and inspection techniques are visual inspection, ultrasonics and eddy current and the use of robots reflects both the need to minimise operator exposure to radiation and the frequent difficulties in accessing critical components such as pressure vessel welds and steam generator tubes. Key decommissioning uses include handling and size reduction of contaminated materials, cutting and demolition.

This paper provides details of inspection and decommissioning robots in the nuclear power industry.

The purpose of this study is to analyze existing policies, methods and technologies, which are aimed at the rational and proper handling of decommissioned aviation transport means, determination of the world trends and substantiation of the prospects for implementation of utilization and recycling programs in the aviation industry. This research is devoted to problems of utilization and recycling of decommissioned aircraft and its components: features of proper handling of aviation industry vehicles are considered; the analysis of existing methods and technologies aimed at the rational and correct handling of the end-of-life aircraft is carried out; the necessity of the introduction of the system of complex utilization of aviation equipment is substantiated; the ecological and economic problems connected with the utilization and recycling of aviation vehicles, their units and units are considered; and the relevance and feasibility of introducing recycling programs in the field of aviation industry waste management are substantiated.

Problems of utilization and recycling of decommissioned aircraft and its components are considered in this research. The analysis of existing methods and technologies aimed at the rational and correct handling of the end-of-life aircraft is carried out. In addition to this, the ecological and economic problems connected with the utilization and recycling of aviation vehicles, their units and parts are considered. Moreover, the relevance and feasibility of introducing recycling programs in the field of aviation industry waste management are substantiated.

In this study, the life cycle of aircraft is carried out and analyzed. The existing methodologies and approaches to end-of-life aircraft recycling and utilization are presented in this paper. The experience of the leading organizations in the sphere of decommissioned aircraft recycling, such as Aircraft Fleet Recycling Association and Process for Advanced Management of End-of-Life Aircraft, are considered as well. Environmental and economical benefits to aviation and neighbor industries, arising from the introduction of aircraft recycling systems, are shown.

The existing experience of leading companies in the aviation and aircraft recycling industry is accumulated and analyzed to show and propose the general methodology for the development and implementation methodology of end-of-life aircraft recycling and utilization.

The literature lacks a single and universally accepted definition of major and megaprojects: usually, these projects are described as projects with a budget above $1 billion and a high level of innovation, complexity, and uniqueness both in terms of physical infrastructure and stakeholder network. Moreover, they often provide fewer benefits than what were originally expected and are affected by delays and cost overruns. Despite this techno-economic magnitude, it is still extremely hard to gather lessons learned from these projects in a systematic way. The purpose of this paper is to present an innovative methodology based on benchmarking to investigate good and bad practices and learn from a portfolio of unique megaprojects.

The methodology combines quantitative and qualitative cross-comparison of case studies and statistical analysis into an iterative process.

Indeed, benchmarking offers significant potential to identify good and bad practices and improve the performance of project selection, planning, and delivery.

The methodology is exemplified in this paper using the case of Nuclear Decommissioning Projects and Programmes (NDPs).

Indeed, due to their characteristics, NDPs can be addressed as megaprojects, and are a relevant example for the application of the methodology presented here that collects and investigates the characteristics that mostly impact the performance of (mega)projects, through a continuous learning process.