A boy recounts his annual summer trips to rural Illinois with his sister during the Great Depression to visit their larger-than-life grandmother.

Information on design features, special equipment, and construction methods useful in the facilitation of decommissioning light water reactors is presented in this report. A wide range of facilitation methods--from improved documentation to special decommissioning tools and techniques--is discussed. In addition, estimates of capital costs, cost savings, and radiation dose reduction associated with these facilitation methods are given.

This report describes a study sponsored by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to identify practical techniques to facilitate the decommissioning of nuclear power generating facilities. The objective of these ''facilitation techniques'' is to reduce the radioactive exposures and/or volumes of waste generated during the decommissioning process. The report presents the possible facilitation techniques identified during the study and discusses the corresponding facilitation of the decommissioning process. Techniques are categorized by their applicability of being implemented during the three stages of power reactor life: design/construction, operation, or decommissioning. Detailed cost-benefit analyses were performed for each technique to determine the anticipated exposure and/or radioactive waste reduction; the estimated costs for implementing each technique were then calculated. Finally, these techniques were ranked by their effectiveness in facilitating the decommissioning process. This study is a part of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's evaluation of decommissioning policy and its modification of regulations pertaining to the decommissioning process. The findings can be used by the utilities in the planning and establishment of activities to ensure that all objectives of decommissioning will be achieved.