Gas-cooled reactors represent an important part of the world's nuclear programme. A wide spectrum of designs has been developed and tested. The majority of these test reactors and 1st generation of power reactors has been shut down and is now in different stages of decommissioning. This is also the case for the pilot power reactors of the types High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) and Heavy Water Gas-cooled Reactor types (HWGCR). Gas-cooled reactors show major generic design characteristics different from Light Water Reactors (LWR), hence influencing the choice of decommissioning strategy, waste/material management and also to a certain extent the decommissioning techniques and procedures applied. The most important issue influencing the decommissioning is the presence of large amounts of graphite in most of these reactors. The majority of the shut-down reactors is located in the UK and in France and major decommissioning programmes are under way in these countries. Interesting decommissioning work has also been carried out in Germany and in the USA. Most reactors are in a stage of safe enclosure. However, decisions have been taken recently to perform direct complete dismantling, notably in France, Italy and, to a certain extent, in Germany.
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