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As the nuclear industry experiences renewed interest from governments worldwide, overcoming the challenge of repeatability is crucial. The issue goes beyond new projects to include standardization of maintenance and operational practices in the existing fleet.

At COP28 in December 2023, more than 20 countries committed to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050. The announcement marked a potential comeback for nuclear projects, after three decades of a reduction in plants under construction compared to the heyday of the 1970-1985 period.

However, whether this renaissance will have a lasting impact and raise the share of nuclear energy in world electricity above its current level of 10% will largely depend on whether these projects manage to overcome a history of delays and large cost overruns. 

This history owes a lot to the fact that each new nuclear project learns little from the experience of past projects or other countries. As noted by McKinsey, the complexity and variations in reactor designs mean that "every plant is a “first of its kind,” with little repetition of standard designs to capture project-over-project improvements." 

As the industry increasingly competes with other sources of energy, such as wind, solar and hydrogen, achieving economies of scale, predictability and repeatability will be critical for competitiveness and governments’ willingness to commit to decade-long projects.

Cultural Challenge or Tooling Issue?

For the biggest maker of reactors that run on natural uranium AtkinsRéalis's CEO, Ian Edwards, the issue is cultural and could be solved by greater attention to the earlier phases of a project. “Clients, governments, and ourselves as the industry players, we all become too optimistic. We have this optimism bias towards being able to deliver faster.  Really we should probably slow things down a little bit, spend more time on the planning phase and get the execution phase [done]. Repeatability is really important.” Edwards noted in a conversation with the Financial Times.

However, the issue is also a matter of having the right tools to manage some of the world’s most complex facilities. It is not uncommon, for example, that the construction of a nuclear plant mobilizes one EPC and a slew of specialized contractors for the nuclear island, while other companies manage the conventional island, which is virtually identical to turbine-generator configurations at fossil plants. It also mobilizes rare skills, resources and materials and involves complex governance schemes.

Handling this complexity and improving certainty across nuclear projects requires a top-of-the-line solution that brings together project management and controls to monitor project performance, create transparency among stakeholders and help anticipate overruns. In the United States, for example, AREVA has leveraged EcoSys to increase project management maturity and systematize advanced practices in earned value management (EVM) to adapt to different levels of project complexity. 

The use of design and engineering tools that have been tried and tested in nuclear construction—such as SmartPlant® Enterprise, GT STRUDL or CAESAR II—is also essential for managing, visualizing and controlling critical data, ensuring adherence to nuclear codes and avoiding surprises down the line.

Driving Repeatability in Nuclear Maintenance and Operations

However, the challenge of repeatability goes beyond new projects. With 90% of Europe's nuclear plants being over 30 years old, standardizing maintenance processes and using common tools across projects and operations has become crucial. 

Nuclear operators are thus increasingly adopting programs to standardize best practices. For instance, the use of PIPESTRESS to streamline and industrialize pipe calculations can result in significant savings on existing plants by avoiding extensive modifications, while saving months of engineering work on new projects by limiting the volume of studies required. The outcomes are a more industrial engineering process and a design that is “right the first time.”

This shift towards data-driven standardization and automation is reshaping nuclear projects and facilities. Examples include:

• Better Work Order Management: digitalizing maintenance through an Enterprise Asset Management solution can deliver a variety of benefits - from automating scheduling to ensuring that operators are provided with comprehensive maintenance information of a given asset. It also increases the ability to conduct analyses and incorporate additional sources of data, such as IoT sensors. For example, CERN achieved a 90% reduction in the time taken to dispatch corrective work by integrating its maintenance processes with its control room and used HxGN EAM to drive a 200% increase in assets with IoT sensors.

• Elimination of Paper-Based Processes: j5 provides a solid basis for computerizing and structuring key operational practices, such as shift handovers and logbooks, leading to safer and more efficient operations.

• Standardization of Operating Procedures and Work Instructions: A procedure management tool such as AcceleratorKMS can help ensure procedures are digitized, well organized and unambiguous, inform the plant’s personnel of relevant changes and ensure that they apply the relevant procedures and policies. 

The need for greater repeatability in projects and greater standardization in operations are deeply interconnected endeavors. Data-driven projects lay the groundwork for data-driven operations, built on the same foundation of culture, tools and practices.

Mitigating the Effects of the Upcoming Generational Shift

Lastly, this cultural shift towards digitalization and standardization is crucial for training and developing current and future staff, especially as the nuclear industry undergoes a significant generational shift.

Many in the nuclear workforce joined during the rapid expansion of plants worldwide. As of 2023, 25% of employees are over 55, and 10% are over 65. Digital technologies are essential for capturing the expertise of these experienced workers and using it to train new hires. Standardizing practices makes them repeatable, ensuring that the industry does not depend on the informal knowledge of seasoned workers

For governments looking to expand or rebuild their nuclear fleets, this is a strategic consideration. As nuclear energy is increasingly viewed as a potential solution for ensuring energy security, relying on the informal knowledge of a shrinking workforce is not an option.

Adopting tools and practices that can help preserve expertise, optimize project success and maintenance efficiency, but also help new hires gain skills rapidly is, therefore, not just a matter of good corporate governance. Instead, it is central to establishing nuclear energy’s role as the most competitive source of energy in the decades to come.