Nuclear Decommissioning: Undoing Atoms
A nuclear plant's price tag stops at the switch-off date. This video explains what happens after that: the decades-long, multi-billion-dollar job of decommissioning, from defueling and SAFSTOR/DECON/ENTOMB strategy choices through cutting up the reactor, routing waste to disposal sites and dry casks, and proving the land is safe to hand back.
It compares what decommissioning has actually cost at real plants - Zion's roughly $1 billion dismantling, San Onofre's $4.4 billion estimate, Diablo Canyon's $3.9 billion estimate, and Ontario Power Generation's C$18.2 billion for its 20-reactor fleet - and how the money is raised: US trust funds built from a charge on electricity bills, versus the UK's direct state funding through the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
It covers cases where US trust funds came up short, at Three Mile Island Unit 2 and Pilgrim; Sellafield's cleanup, the biggest and most scrutinised in Europe, including the UK National Audit Office's October 2024 value-for-money finding, its 2025 GBP4.6 billion contract, and its 2026 completion of vitrified waste shipments to Germany; and Vermont Yankee, which shows how far an accelerated decommissioning can outpace the 60-year SAFSTOR ceiling the law allows. It closes by weighing who actually ends up paying - ratepayers, taxpayers, or future generations.
Educational documentary. Not financial or investment advice.
In these topics
Chapters
- The bill nobody shows you
- The day the reactor stops
- Three roads after shutdown
- Cutting up a reactor
- Where the radioactive material goes
- Giving the land back
- What it actually costs
- Four plants, three countries
- The funds meant to pay for it
- When the fund comes up short
- Sellafield: the biggest bill in Europe
- Decades, not years
- So who really pays?
Sources and credits
Photo credits (Wikimedia Commons)
- Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station, Pennsylvania, 1979: Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AThree_Mile_Island_plant_through_trees_-_NARA_-_540038.tif
- Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, Vernon, Vermont: Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Public domain - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AVermont_Yankee_Nuclear_Power_Plant.jpg
- San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, AEC inspection, 1973: ENERGY.GOV, Public domain - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASan_Onofre_Nuclear_Generating_Station_AEC_inspection%2C_1973_%2802%29.jpg
- Zion Nuclear Power Plant, Illinois, lakeside site: Dave Piasecki, Public domain - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AZion_Nuclear_Power_Plant.jpg
- NRC Chairman Stephen Burns tours the Zion plant turbine hall during decommissioning, 2015: Nuclear Regulatory Commission from US, Public domain - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AChairman_Burns_Tours_the_Zion_plant_in_Illinois_%2819728157520%29_%282%29.jpg
- Pickering Nuclear Generating Station, Ontario, under construction, 1965: Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, Public domain - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APickering_Nuclear_Generating_Station_construction_1965.jpg
- Pickering Nuclear Generating Station, Ontario, aerial view, c.1972: Ontario Hydro, Public domain - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APickering_Nuclear_Generating_Station_aerial_photo_c1972.jpg
Primary sources
- UK National Audit Office, 'Decommissioning Sellafield: managing risks from the nuclear legacy', HC 233, 16 October 2024.
- World Nuclear News / American Nuclear Society (ans.org), on Hunterston B's 1 April 2026 transfer, the June 2026 final vitrified HLW shipment to Germany, and the Sellafield-TEPCO September 2025 extension.
- American Nuclear Society and gov.uk, on Sellafield's GBP4.6 billion ($6bn) high-hazard risk reduction framework contract, November 2025.
- US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 10 CFR 50.82, 50.75 and 20.1402; NRC news release 23-073 (2023) on the Zion site release.
- Southern California Edison, 2014 San Onofre decommissioning cost estimate filings.
- California Public Utilities Commission, 2022 Diablo Canyon decommissioning cost approval; American Nuclear Society and Power Engineering, 2026, on Diablo Canyon's operating extension to 2030.
- NRC Director's Decision and EFMR Monitoring Group 10 CFR 2.206 petition, on Three Mile Island Unit 2's 2008 trust-fund figures.
- Vermont Public Service Board, Docket 8880; VTDigger, 2016 and September 2026 reporting on Vermont Yankee.
Not regulated financial advice.