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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.

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.

The national governments of the European Union (EU) are finding it increasingly difficult to provide their populations with cheap and reliable sources of electricity. There is a highly controversial technology available within the EU which could overcome this problem – nuclear generated electricity. The purpose of this article is to question the extent to which it is possible to reconcile the views of those citizens who object to the use of nuclear electricity with views of those who support the use of nuclear electricity as a competitive, sustainable and secure electricity supply within an open and competitive European energy market.

This article adopts an inter‐disciplinary approach to the analysis of the issues.

Political, economic and environmental pressures are combining to constrain the opportunities for national governments to enable citizens’ preferences with regard to the nuclear sector to be maintained. What is argued in the article is that all the tools which are available to the EU to overcome any lack of democratic decision making in the nuclear sector must be utilised to their full potential, including the legal framework provided by the often overlooked EURATOM Treaty.

The research will be of value to academic lawyers and political scientists investigating the problematic relationships which exist between the national and supranational levels of governance in the EU.

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.

Asks whether nuclear power is viable as a clean source of energy and an independent energy source and whether it should be used to attain targeted reductions in fossil fuels or as a method of electricity generation. Also considers whether nuclear energy should be used in preference to energy from a third country. Discusses problems such as technological safety, nuclear waste, costs and the individual energy policies of Member States. Cites the main issue as public perception as the subject is regarded as dangerous and secretive. Outlines how the debate in Europe is being re‐evaluated and with the evolution of new science and technology, the positive contribution of nuclear energy to sustainable development is a factor to be weighed in the balance.

The objective of this study is to enhance the usage of teleoperation fields, such as in nuclear site decommissioning or nuclear waste disposal, by designing a stable, dependable and fault‐tolerant teleoperation system in the face of “extraordinary” conditions. These “extraordinary” conditions can be classified as variable time delays in communications lines, usage of different robotic systems, component failures and changes in the system parameters during task execution.

This paper first gives a review of teleoperation systems developed earlier. Later, fault tolerance is proposed for use in teleoperation systems at the processor, actuator, sub‐system, and system levels. Position/force control algorithms are recommended to address stability issues when there is a loss in communications. Various other controls are also introduced to overcome the instability experienced when there is a time delay in the communications line.

Finally, this work summarizes the teleoperation system architecture and controller design options in terms of a flowchart to help in the conceptual design of such systems.

The impact of these new designs and algorithms will be to expand the limits and boundaries of teleoperation and a widening of its utilization area. Enhanced operation of these systems will improve system reliability and even encourage their use in more critical and diverse applications.