Every nuclear installation in the Slovak Republic must be safely decommissioned after termination of its operation. Costs of financing of such a (so-called) back-end are borne by the licence holder for the operation of a nuclear installation. At present, there are two reactor and five non-reactor nuclear facilities in Slovakia, whose operators have an obligation to pay contributions necessary for their future decommissioning and other related activities.  Those installations are as follows:

Reactor facilities:

1. 1. Nuclear Power Plant V2,
   2. Nuclear Power Plant EMO 1, 2.

Non-reactor facilities intendend for the management of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel:

1. 1. Technologies for Treatment and Conditioning of radioactive waste at the Jaslovské Bohunice site – TTC RAW,
   2. Interim Spent Fuel Storage Facility at the Jaslovské Bohunice site – ISFS,
   3. Final Treatment and Conditioning of Liquid Radioactive Waste at the Mochovce site- FTC LRAW,
   4. Integral Storage of Radioactive Waste at the Jaslovské Bohunice site – IS RAW,
   5. National Radioactive Waste Repository at the Mochovce site – NRAWR.

Financial resources intended for future decommissioning activities are accumulated in particular accounts and sub-accounts of the National Nuclear Fund, which ensures that these resources are accumulated in sufficient amount and time; i.e. when necessary for activities of the back-end of nuclear power engineering.

A new methodology for stating the amount of contributions to the NJF from the licence holders for the operation of reactor nuclear installations (so-called compulsory contributions) and contributions to the NJF from the licence holders for non-reactor nuclear facilities (so-called compulsory payments) was proposed and already applied in the Act No. 308/2018 Coll. on the National Nuclear Fund. According to the new methodology, the amount of compulsory contributions and payments is independent of the market price of electricity as well as of the installed output of nuclear installation (this method was used until the introduction of the new methodology of calculation) and lies in a fixed calculation based on expected future costs for the back-end of each particular installation, number of years needed for accumulation of financial resources and their appreciation, and the inflation rate. The compulsory contributions and payments are collected annually during the operation of a nuclear installation and the obligation related to the contributions and payments to the NJF expires on the day of shutdown of an installation for decommissioning purposes.

Of course, the calculation of the amount of compulsory contributions and payments is based on certain assumptions and therefore it will be updated regularly (at least once in six years) or in case of change of technical, economic or other conditions affecting it.

At present, the costs for decommissioning of each nuclear installation, for which contributions or payments to the NJF are collected, are determined by the International Structure Costs for Decommissioning Costing (so-called ISDC – the International Structure for Decommissioning Costing of Nuclear Installations). The document was jointly issued by three international organizations – OECD/NEA, the International Agency for Atomic Energy and the European Commission in 2012. All partial activities contained in the ISDC are divided into the following main categories: preparation for decommissioning, termination of operation of an installation, additional activities for possible closure with monitoring or disposal at the site, dismantling activities in the controlled area, treatment, storage and waste disposal, infrastructure and operation of the locality, conventional dismantling, demolition and restoration of locality, project management, engineering and support, fuel and nuclear materials, related research and development, and various other costs.

Other future costs for the back-end are costs for the storage of spent nuclear fuel. However, these costs are applicable only to the reactor nuclear installations in the Slovak Republic. They represent costs for the storage of spent nuclear fuel in separated facilities until its retrieval and subsequent disposal in the deep geological repository.

The costs for the deep geological repository represent a significant portion of the total costs for the back-end of reactor nuclear installations. They include preparation, planning, construction, operation and closure of the deep geological repository, research and supporting activities, public relations and stimulation of localities affected by the deep geological repository, as well as regulatory inspection after its closure. These costs represent an expert assessment and are elaborated within the expert studies based on the available information and experience acquired from the preparation process and development of repositories in other countries.

The costs related to the management of the National Nuclear Fund are also included in the costs for the back-end. They comprise 1% of the annual income of the NJF.

The compulsory contributions for reactor nuclear installations and compulsory payments for a non-reactor nuclear facility for the year 2020 were determined based on the described assumptions and methodology of calculation.

The amount of the annual compulsory contribution for the Nuclear Power Plant Mochovce – units 3 and 4 – will be determined after their commissioning.