Nuclear Decommissioning Market (2026-2036)

The growth of this market is mainly driven by the growing number of permanently shut down nuclear reactors, sustained government funding for the clean-up of legacy nuclear sites, the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi plant and other Japanese reactors, and the increasing preference for immediate dismantling. However, reactor restarts and lifetime extensions, together with the high cost and schedule risk of complex decommissioning projects, restrain the growth of this market.

Furthermore, robotics and remote handling for high-hazard environments, waste minimization, treatment, and metal recycling, and the acquisition of shut-down plants by specialist decommissioning companies are expected to offer growth opportunities for the stakeholders in this market. However, the lack of final disposal routes for radioactive waste remains a major challenge impacting the growth of this market. Additionally, the shift toward immediate dismantling, new structures for transferring decommissioning and waste liabilities, and investment in the decommissioning workforce are prominent trends in this market.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Market comprises the services, technologies, and solutions used to safely retire nuclear facilities at the end of their operating lives and release their sites for other uses. The market covers commercial power reactors, research reactors, fuel cycle facilities such as reprocessing, enrichment, and fuel fabrication plants, and legacy government nuclear sites, and includes decommissioning planning and engineering, decontamination, dismantling and demolition, radioactive waste treatment, packaging, transport, and interim storage, spent fuel management during decommissioning, site remediation, and license termination. Construction and operation of deep geological repositories and the operation of high-level waste treatment plants at government sites are excluded from the market value. The market ecosystem extends from decommissioning contractors, engineering and construction firms, waste treatment and recycling companies, and robotics and technology providers to utilities, government agencies, regulators, and decommissioning funds.

The market is driven by a large and growing inventory of shut-down nuclear facilities. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), seven nuclear reactors were permanently shut down worldwide in 2025, located in Russia, China, and Belgium, and half of cumulative reactor shutdowns as of February 2026 were concentrated in the U.S., the U.K., and Germany. Germany shut down its last three reactors, Isar 2, Emsland, and Neckarwestheim 2, on 15 April 2023, with dismantling expected to take 10 to 15 years, and PreussenElektra alone is responsible for decommissioning eight German plants. In Belgium, Doel 1 was shut down in February 2025 and Tihange 1 and Doel 2 in the autumn of 2025, following Doel 3 and Tihange 2 in 2022 and 2023. In France, EDF has nine reactors using four different technologies currently being decommissioned and two further reactors in the pre-decommissioning phase.

Legacy government sites account for the largest share of decommissioning expenditure. According to the U.K. National Audit Office (NAO), the forecast cost of decommissioning Sellafield, the U.K.'s largest and most hazardous nuclear site, is GBP 136 billion (undiscounted, in 2023-24 prices); the site spent GBP 2.7 billion in 2023-24, has nine major projects in progress with a total forecast cost of GBP 7.0 billion, and is expected to have all buildings demolished by 2125. The NAO estimated that 3.3 million cubic meters of radioactive waste currently exists or will be created as Sellafield is decommissioned, and reported delays of up to 13 years in retrieving all waste from four of the site's oldest storage facilities compared with its 2018 assessment.

Japan represents one of the most technically demanding decommissioning markets. At Fukushima Daiichi, an estimated 880 tons of fuel debris remain in the three reactors that suffered meltdowns in 2011, and the clean-up has been estimated to cost about JPY 23 trillion. Trial retrievals at Unit 2 in November 2024 and April 2025 collected a total of about 0.9 grams of fuel debris for analysis, according to Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and TEPCO has said that full-scale removal of fuel debris at Unit 3 will not begin until 2037 or later. Beyond Fukushima Daiichi, TEPCO estimated the cost of dismantling the four reactors at Fukushima Daini at JPY 282.3 billion, excluding fuel reprocessing.

At the same time, the decommissioning pipeline is being reshaped by renewed interest in nuclear power. In August 2025, Holtec's Palisades plant in Michigan, which had been shut down in 2022 and acquired for decommissioning, became the first U.S. nuclear plant to return from decommissioning to operational status, supported by a U.S. Department of Energy loan guarantee of about USD 1.5 billion. Constellation Energy plans to restart the former Three Mile Island Unit 1, renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center, by 2027 under a 20-year power purchase agreement with Microsoft, and Belgium reversed its 2003 nuclear phase-out law in 2025 and agreed to extend the operation of Doel 4 and Tihange 3. These developments are expected to moderate the rate at which new reactors enter decommissioning, while the large existing inventory of shut-down facilities and legacy sites sustains long-term demand.