Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning (NND – Norsk nukleær dekommisjonering) has applied to take over the responsibility and ownership of the Kjeller nuclear facilities as early as 1 January 2027.
The regulatory body handling the licence application is the Directorate for Radiation Protection & Nuclear Safety (DSA – Direktoratet for strålevern og atomsikkerhet), which has formally recommended transferring the entire licence from the Institute of Energy Technology (IFE – Institutt for energiteknikk) to NND.
The Norwegian government fully backs this acceleration for the transfer to be carried out, NND must be granted a licence under the Atomic Energy Act. DSA will consider the application and make recommendations to the Ministry of Health and Care. The final decision will be made by the government.
“Our experience with the transfer of the Halden plant has been helpful in applying for a licence to take over the facilities at Kjeller, said NND Director, Pål Mikkelsen. “That we have now submitted the concession application is an important milestone in the work of decommissioning the facilities.”
The Kjeller site houses historic research reactors, including the JEEP-II neutron scattering facility, which was permanently shut down in April 2019. NND originally submitted a comprehensive licence application in December 2022 to take over Norway’s historic nuclear research infrastructure. The first stage of this multi-decade cleanup programme concluded on 1 April 2025, when NND successfully took official control of the Halden reactor.
The total national decommissioning effort for both Halden and Kjeller is a massive undertaking estimated to span several decades, costing between NOK33bn ($3.6bn) and NOK57bn. Norway’s transition from an active nuclear research pioneer into a major decommissioning project involves decades of atomic history, advanced waste disposal planning, and global engineering collaborations.
Norway was an early adopter of nuclear technology, becoming the sixth country in the world to build a nuclear reactor. IFE operated three distinct reactors at Kjeller between 1951 and 2019:
- JEEP I (1951–1967) – Norway’s first research reactor, which had a modest thermal output of 400 kW. It established the baseline expertise in nuclear engineering and reactor technology.
- NORA (1961–1968) – a specialised “critical assembly” reactor used for short-term fundamental research before being decommissioned.
- JEEP II (1966–2019) – 2 MW neutron scattering facility used for physics, materials science, renewable energy studies, and nuclear medicine. JEEP II operated until January 2019, when routine inspections discovered severe component corrosion. Rather than funding expensive repairs, the IFE chose to shut it down permanently, ending Norway’s 68-year history of reactor operations.
Decades of operating research reactors produced used fuel and contaminated materials that now require extensive planning. Norway separates its radioactive waste management strategy by hazard level.
Low- and intermediate-level waste is handled via a combined disposal facility and landfill repository located in Himdalen (the KLDRA facility0 that began operation in 1999. It houses waste originating from industry, medicine, defence, and the research reactors.
Finding a permanent solution for highly radioactive used fuel is NND’s most critical mandate. The agency recently sent letters to 22 Norwegian municipalities to evaluate interest in hosting a permanent repository. Simultaneously, Norway is researching advanced technological concepts, such as Deep Borehole Disposal (DBD), to permanently isolate the used fuel deep inside geological formations.
Because Norway has never decommissioned a commercial or large-scale nuclear power plant, NND relies heavily on major global engineering and consulting firms to architect the multi-decade cleanup programme:
Westinghouse Electric Company was awarded a three-year engineering contract in July 2022 (valued up to NOK1bn) to spearhead the core decommissioning design, safety assessments, and licensing plans for both Halden and Kjeller. This was extended to 2028.
The Jacobs/Multiconsult joint venture formed a six-year framework alliance in June 2022 to handle concept design, facility upgrades, and the structural preparation of decommissioning safety cases.
A consortium comprising Egis, Orano Projets and Galson Sciences was hired in March 2023 on a two-year contract (extended to 2027) to design and evaluate the deep borehole disposal architecture required for the used fuel.
AFRY secured a four-year framework agreement in May 2025 (extended to 2031) to act as a technical consultant, focusing on safety compliance, risk analysis, and training.
