Decommissioning Information Management at AECL

Abstract

As the AECL Decommissioning program has grown over the past few years, particularly with regard to long-term planning, so has its need to manage the records and information required to support the program. The program encompasses a diverse variety of facilities, including prototype and research reactors, fuel processing facilities, research laboratories, waste processing facilities, buildings, structures, lands and waste storage areas, many of which have changed over time. The decommissioning program involves planning, assessing, monitoring and executing projects to decommission the facilities. The efficient and effective decommissioning planning, assessment, monitoring and execution for the facilities and projects are dependent on a sound information base, upon which decisions can be made. A vital part of this Information Base is the ongoing management of historical facility records, including decommissioning records, throughout the full life cycle of the facilities. This paper describes AECL's and particularly DP&O's approach to: 1) Establishing a decommissioning records and information framework, which identifies what records and information are relevant to decommissioning, prioritizing the decommissioning facilities, identifying sources of relevant information and providing a user-friendly, electronic, search and retrieval tool for facility information accessible to staff. 2) Systematically, gathering, assessing, archiving and identifying important information and making that information available to staff to support their ongoing decommissioning work. 3) Continually managing and enhancing the records and information base and its support infrastructure to ensure its long-term availability. 4) Executing special information enhancement projects, which transform historic records into information for analysis