STREAMLINING PRODUCTION | COVER STORY
Lean methods in nuclear power
The solution to the cost-effective delivery of nuclear power stations is to adopt a modular approach to designing and building them. That means a fundamental rethink on planning and designing new nuclear reactors
By: Tony Roulstone, Nuclear Energy Lecturer, University of Cambridge, Dept. of Engineering, Simon Murray, Founding Member of Acumen7, Gary Fischer, Executive Director Project Production Institute
THE LONG-AWAITED STARTUP OF of Georgia Power’s Vogtle nuclear power plant, seven years late and $17bn over budget is a sobering reminder of the perils involved with nuclear power plant investments. Clearly, nuclear power has a construction cost and long build schedule problem using the current approach. However, out of necessity nuclear power is returning to the energy agenda because of the challenges of climate change and a refreshed understanding of the need for energy security. In the UK, for example, successive governments
have tried to solve the cost/schedule problem using international tendering to procure and finance large new one-off power stations like Hinckley Point C, Moorside and Wylfa. Suppliers have spent billions developing unique designs, preparing their offers and engaging in years of negotiations with the government over who will bear the risks of construction delays and cost overruns. These projects have either collapsed in negotiations over funding or, as in the case of Hinckley Point C, have been funded by foreign governments that have underwritten the risks in return for guaranteed prices for the electricity they will generate. As a result, consumers will pay high prices for this electricity for many years to come.
This is not a viable solution. The cost/schedule problem
can only be addressed by taking a fresh programme approach, adopting modern production methods that are commonplace elsewhere but not applied in the nuclear industry and by creating production systems or optimising existing ones that profit from series build as against one-off projects and drive efficiency throughout the supply chain.
Reducing reactor costs In his recent book How Big Things Get Done, (Macmillan 2023), Professor Bent Flyvbjerg of the Said Business School at Oxford showed that the UK is not alone in finding it difficult to deliver new nuclear power stations. Drawing on a database of more than 1,000 infrastructure projects from around the world, he calculated that nuclear power stations are amongst the least predictable with average cost overruns of 120% and average delays of 65% of the original schedules. He concluded that this is caused by the fact that most of these are large and complex projects built to unique designs. The projects take many years to complete so there are few opportunities for the teams to learn from project to project and many opportunities for projects to be impacted by unforeseen events.
Right: Vogtle was both late and over budget, illustrating the perils of nuclear development Photo credit: Georgia Power Company
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