The use of nuclear energy would be a feasible option to reduce the greenhouse gases emission by merchant ships; however, decommissioning brings high costs, which affect the economic feasibility. The experience from US Navy indicates that the decommissioning cost, after the establishment of a well-defined process, is close to 25% of the reactor cost. Nevertheless, the experience the Royal Navy that postponed the decommissioning highlights a cost much higher, showing that a good planning decreases cost and delays. Therefore, it is important to develop a good recycling policy after deactivation of a ship with nuclear-power propulsion. The objective of this work is to propose a decommissioning method for nuclear propulsion ships through a survey bringing the experience and feedback from other countries about this subject. Furthermore, beyond a simple decommissioning process, which is following the standards from Nuclear Regulation, this work found design and base requirements, which would bring economic benefits to a nuclear facility. The maximum potential gain with the adoption of the proposed method and the fulfilment of the identified requirements would be 10.3% savings on the price of the energy sold to the consumer. Still, there are additional costs in the project whose estimate are, sometimes, difficult to obtain.
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