Antonio Vaya Soler of LucidCatalyst will participate in NEA's "Initial Estimation of Backend Costs for Advanced Reactors and Small Modular Reactors" Workshop, Nov. 18th in Paris.

Nuclear Energy Agency

NEA Headquarters, Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris

November 18th, 2025, 16:50 CET

Antonio Vaya Soler, Manager, at LucidCatalyst, will participate in the "Panel discussion on SMR/Gen IV technologies and generic cost estimation for waste management strategies (waste management, spent fuel management, and decommissioning waste management)" on the first day of the NEA's "Initial Estimation of Backend Costs for Advanced Reactors and Small Modular Reactors" workshop.

The panel, taking place during Session 4 on Day 1, will be chaired by Peter Stoltz, Head of Unit, Nuclear Waste Financing at the Swedish National Debt Office. Antonio will be joined in the panel discussion by Bruce Montgomery, Director Decommissioning and Used Fuel at Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), Valentyn Bykov, Project Manager, Decommissioning and Disposal at Swissnuclear, and Linus van Ginhoven, Business Development Manager at Blykalla.

> You can view the full workshop agenda in the programme, located here.

Workshop Objectives:

• Pioneering discussion forum:

  Create the first-ever collaborative space where experts can tackle the unique challenges of decommissioning cost estimation for next-generation nuclear technologies, exploring how novel fuels, designs and waste streams reshape our traditional approaches, with the aim to inform future ideas for work across industry and for diverse stakeholders.

• Cross-industry strategic dialogue:

  Facilitate dynamic conversations among stakeholders that go beyond technical aspects to address critical regulatory requirements and financial assurance mechanisms—questions that will determine the economic viability of these technologies.

• Decoding SMR/GEN IV complexity:

  Unpack the distinctive features of small modular reactors and Generation IV designs to reveal how these innovations fundamentally alter backend management strategies, identifying crucial questions that must be answered to develop reliable cost estimation methods.

• Learning from history to shape the future:

  Critically examine lessons from traditional nuclear decommissioning projects to prevent repeating costly mistakes and create more efficient pathways for emerging technologies.

• Bridging divides among stakeholders:

  Foster earlier and more meaningful collaboration between technology vendors and the decommissioning community, ensuring end-of-life considerations influence designs from the earliest development stages.

• Navigating the regulatory landscape:

  Illuminate how existing regulatory frameworks should inform early SMR/Gen IV development decisions, with special focus on streamlining licensing processes, decommissioning planning, and establishing appropriate financial guarantees.