In this survey paper, we bring together the insights from six country case studies on decommissioning commercial nuclear power plants (NPPs). The six countries we selected for our research have commercial nuclear industries that span a wide spectrum in terms of organization, regulation, financial provisions, and production of decommissioning services. Based on the cross-comparison of countries and their approaches to decommissioning, we highlight a series of gaps in the existing research.

With nuclear decommissioning moving out of niche research, questions on optimal organizational models arise. We compare the former market-based UK parent body organization model (now changed to a state-organized model) to the approach in the USA, which see an emergence of specialized actors in the field. We find that market-based approaches may bring advantages in terms of efficiency but also bear the risk of information asymmetry, high transaction costs, and financial liability issues.

Part of sustainability is the debate about ecological carrying capacity, which was initiated by a group of scientists led by Johan Rockström, who proposed the concept of planetary boundaries. The challenge of climate change requires strong decarbonization and has led to increased investments in low-carbon technologies such as nuclear power. Although no greenhouse gas emissions are produced during fission, hazardous radioactive waste is generated. This burden for our society is underrepresented.

Given the need to combat climate change and the recent energy price increases for electricity and natural gas, investments into new nuclear power plants are considered an option in some countries. In this paper, we discuss economic aspects of such investments, differentiating between three different types of reactor technology, and discuss economic aspects.