Nuclear decommissioning is the final step in the lifecycle of a nuclear installation covering all activities from shutdown and removal of fissile material to environmental restoration of the site. The number of nuclear installations in the EU, such as nuclear power plants, research reactors and other nuclear fuel cycle installations, that are definitively closed and undergoing decommissioning is steadily increasing. It is a fair assumption that more than one third of the 143 reactors currently operating in the enlarged EU-27 will need to be shut down by 2025. This underlines the increasing importance of decommissioning in the years ahead, in particular as it requires a long term financial planning.