Learning from the Past to Build the Future

Abstract

It has been several decades since the U.S. or Canada commercial nuclear power industry started and completed design and construction of new nuclear power (NNP) plants. The U.S. and Canada are experiencing a renewed interest in developing and building small modular reactors (SMR) and advanced reactors (AR). National policies are being refined to create the foundations for success for these safe and non-carbon emitting energy sources. However, concerns over past NNP construction performance must be addressed to attract customers and investors.

This paper synthesizes the conclusions from 35 prior public domain reports and (1) identifies the top strategic project management lessons learned and best practices that experience shows have been key in the successful execution of large complex projects; (2) outlines various obstacles and “blind spots” that exist to implementing these lessons and practices, and (3) provides conclusions that summarize the impact on project cost and schedule performance.