For a given plant design, improved decisions on when to shutdown an existing plant may be obtained by making better predictions of failure rates, by exerting efforts to collect more relevant information or by improving decision making models which put that information to best use. It is important that the models include the value of possible loss of lives and fear along with cleanup, decommissioning, relocation if the decisions derived from the model are to be useful. The decision model we have described enables us to investigate a class of optimal decisions on whether to shutdown or continue operating one period of time. The analysis and decision process is repeated at the end of each period with additional information about new costs and risks.