The issue of health and safety aspects and the broader one of the environmental impact of the decommissioning process is far reaching and it may only be summarized.

It is convenient to distinguish at least three aspects:

1. Occupational safety, or safety of the workers directly involved in the decommissioning activities

2. Public safety, or the safety of the population surrounding the plant in decommissioning, excluding therefore those who may be affected by the waste disposal process

3. Environmental protection, including those aspects that are not directly related to human health

The first aspect is probably the most significant. Decommissioning is a very labour intensive activity and workers will be in contact with radioactive and other toxic wastes. However, all the means of the plant are still available to reduce the worker doses to the minimum and, while individual doses will always be below acceptable levels, an ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) analysis of single activities and process could reduce the cumulative occupational doses to values below a few years of plant operation for the entire decommissioning process (few hundreds of man-Sv).

Risks to the public are extremely low in comparison with those associated with plant operation. Radioactive inventory available for release to atmosphere or water bodies is a very small fraction of the previous ones. In general the most dangerous situations are associated with large fires in contaminated areas, breaks in tanks with large inventories of liquid radwaste, drop of contaminated loads. All these situations, however, in general would not even require the activation of an emergency plan.

The environmental issues, finally, are treated in a Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), which is now required in Europe by a Directive of the European Union. Currently a lot of work is undergoing for a better harmonization of such assessments among the member countries. It is also needed to discuss the interaction between the EIA, presented generally to the Ministry of Environment, and the safety assessments that are presented to the Nuclear Regulatory Bodies. As in other EIA, the assessment would present an overall broad view on all interactions of the decommissioning with various environmental matrixes, and would include aspects not included in the Safety Report such as, for example, those related to site restoration, impact of material (radioactive and non radioactive) transports, disturbance to the local flora and fauna, etc.