INGECID has attended the inauguration of the DECOM Cluster, which took place in Halden (Norway). It was invited due to its close collaboration with the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE), thereby strengthening its position and implementation in the Norwegian market, where it is currently leading a consortium along with Createc Ltd and Catenda AS for developing an IT solution for the decommissioning and waste management of the Halden and Kjeller reactors.
DECOM Cluster was founded by the following organizations: Institute for Energy Technology (IFE), Norsk nukleær dekommisjonering (NND), Halden kommune, Smart Innovation Norway, Kongsberg Innovasjon, Halden Næringsutvikling, and Norsus. It has several goals, including:
- Contributing to increasing the focus on education, competence, and development needs and ensuring the proper recruitment of competent employees to the industry.
- Helping existing businesses by assisting in decommissioning and developing the new industry in order to be able to meet the demand for decommissioning and repurposing.
- Transferring knowledge among nuclear decommissioning entities and other industries in need of decommissioning.
- Developing a sustainable cluster that represents the entire value chain regarding decommissioning and a long-term financial plan.
- Achieving international impact through collaborative development. The cluster members gain access to contacts, capital, and competence, and are granted visibility through national and international projects and networks.
The opening ceremony was attended by Christian Vestre, the Norwegian Minister of Trade and Industry, and Anne-Kari Holm, the Mayor of Halden.
After the official inauguration, a workshop was held with members of the IAEA and international experts, including Javier Alonso, the Director of INGECID’s Nuclear Engineering Department, who led a conference entitled “Competence building for decommissioning in Spain”.
In his presentation, Javier Alonso summarized the situation in Spain regarding the dismantling of nuclear power plants (both in present and future situations), highlighting the challenges facing the Spanish nuclear sector with a progressive shutdown of all its reactors. In this sense, Javier Alonso highlighted the important role that INGECID plays, given its ample experience in the sector, in the decommissioning process in Spain using tools such as Vircore, a platform that is being used to decommission the Santa María de Garoña Nuclear Power Plant, integrating a 3D model of the plant (NPPIM, Nuclear Power Plant Information Modelling) together with different modules that allow them to have a physical and radiological inventory, planning control, cost control, etc. In short, this tool is used for optimizing the decommissioning process in order to face the near future with confidence.
