An exploration of the relationship between nuclear decommissioning projects characteristics and cost performance

Nuclear Decommissioning Projects and Programmes (NDPs) are characterized by high complexity and variety, and a schedule that can take decades. Moreover, NDPs estimates at completion can reach billions of Euro and (for many of these projects) keep increasing, while there is a limited understanding of why this happens. To address this knowledge gap, this paper describes how to statistically test the association between the NDP characteristics and the NDP cost performance. The implementation of statistics on a pool of European NDPs highlights the significance of several country-specific and site-specific characteristics (e.g. respectively, the governance system and the availability of facilities to deal with radioactive material on site). Hence, the original contribution of this paper consists in (i) the selection of statistical tests suitable for analysing small sample sizes (i.e. NDPs) and (ii) the presentation of the results from the implementation of these tests on a pool of 24 European NDPs with an illustrative purpose

Cost overruns – helping to define what they really mean

Civil engineers are often in the firing line for alleged cost overruns, particularly on major publicly funded infrastructure projects. This usually occurs when the final cost of a project is simply compared with the original estimate, even though this was published a long time ago, in different circumstances and for a quite different project to the one carried out. This paper proposes a systematic approach to ensure that cost overruns, should they occur, are more accurately defined in terms of when the initial and end costs are assessed, from which point of view, at which project stage, and including scope changes and financial assumptions. The paper refers to the UK’s £163 billion nuclear decommissioning programme

Developing policies for the end-of-life of energy infrastructure: Coming to terms with the challenges of decommissioning

Energy sector policies have focused historically on the planning, design and construction of energy infrastructures, while typically overlooking the processes required for the management of their end-of-life, and particularly their decommissioning. However, decommissioning of existing and future energy infrastructures is constrained by a plethora of technical, economic, social and environmental challenges that must be understood and addressed if such infrastructures are to make a net-positive contribution over their whole life. Here, we introduce the magnitude and variety of these challenges to raise awareness and stimulate debate on the development of reasonable policies for current and future decommissioning projects. Focusing on power plants, the paper provides the foundations for the interdisciplinary thinking required to deliver an integrated decommissioning policy that incorporates circular economy principles to maximise value throughout the lifecycle of energy infrastructures. We conclude by suggesting new research paths that will promote more sustainable management of energy infrastructures at the end of their life

Benchmarking Nuclear Decommissioning

Historically, project management research on infrastructure has mostly focused on its planning, design, and construction. However, globally, more and more infrastructure, such as nuclear and offshore oil & gas facilities, are reaching the end of life and will soon need to be decommissioned. Decommissioning projects are a new, emerging, unavoidable challenge that project managers are currently facing and will face more and more severely in the future. Primarily due to the relevance of the nuclear sector, this research focuses on Nuclear Decommissioning Projects and Programmes (NDPs), intended as site-level endeavours. NDPs are long and complex projects, whose estimates reach billions. Moreover, the cost estimates of several of these projects keep increasing while there is a limited understanding of why this happens. Triggered by these considerations, this industry-funded research develops and applies a methodology based on benchmarking to investigate the NDP characteristics that affect the NDP performance in terms of cost and time. Due to the NDP small sample size, the limited number, availability of and reliability of data and information on NDPs, and the extremely limited previous research on NDPs, inputs of this research are both secondary data and information, as well as primary ones collected through interviews with experienced practitioners. Outputs of this research include a methodology based on benchmarking that incorporates both qualitative and quantitative analysis, and as well as its application on NDPs. However, this methodology could be applied to other industrial sectors as well. The contribution of this thesis is both methodological and practical as it both develops and applies a methodology to investigate NDPs, highlighting the NDP characteristics that affect the NDP performance to ultimately improve the selection, planning, and delivery of NDPs. Moreover, by introducing the topic of NDPs to the project management community, this thesis lays the path for a number of future research, both in order to address the limitations of the current research, e.g. its focus on European NDPs, as well as to promote the in-depth investigation of each single NDP characteristics that emerged during this study

Megaprojects. A special eye on sustainability to overcome the Iron Law

Over the last century, megaprojects have proven to result unsuccess- fully in addressing the expected outcomes. When it comes to respecting budget and schedule constraints, megaprojects are affected by several variables and behav- iors, which affect the performances. Benefit shortfalls are another perspective of underperformance, given the impact that these endeavors have on communities and groups of interest. From literature review and empirical contributions, it is possi- ble to map and describe some managerial guidelines aimed at improving megapro- jects\u2019 performances. In particular, it is interesting to look at these guidelines through the lenses of sustainability, by considering how managerial approaches should be applied and executed considering the concepts of social, environmental and economic sustainability