Developing and constructing a nuclear power plant involves government bodies, multiple expert and construction teams, a large set of materials and the coordinated work of thousands of people as well as input from a myriad of interdisciplinary groups at all levels. To ensure the successful development and construction of a nuclear project, a strong project management plan must be implemented to verify that the project meets regulations and safety standards and is delivered with high quality, on time and on budget.
Management of Nuclear Power Plant Projects, the latest publication in the IAEA Nuclear Energy Series, provides best practices in this area. The publication, funded through the IAEA Peaceful Uses Initiative, describes how to implement a management framework within a nuclear power plant project, ensuring that required systems are in place to manage project areas and are updated proactively as the project progresses.
“Several IAEA Member States have, and continue to run repeated successful nuclear power projects,” said Pekka Pyy, Senior Expert in Organization and Management Systems at the IAEA. “The management of nuclear projects, especially new builds, is challenging, therefore timely project development is needed to prevent delays and budget overruns. Very often, problems reported during the construction phase have actually originated earlier but only become visible later. It is in all cases possible to run successful nuclear newbuild projects by careful planning, agreed processes and clear roles and interfaces.”
