Unsurprisingly, governments have often taken the lead in promoting, devel­oping and financing nuclear power. Nearly all nuclear power plants operat­ing today were financed and built in regulated utility markets. In fact, much of the financing was provided by governments or with government backing or government guarantees of some kind. They have also used regulatory power to permit utilities building new plants to partially finance construc­tion through the electricity tariff during the construction period (‘allowance for funds used during construction’, AFDC).

There were also cases where private finance coexisted with government financing. For example, in the USA and Germany, commercial financing has been arranged by private sector sponsors. Some plants, for example in France and the UK, were built by government-owned national utility com­panies, some of whose shares are publicly traded. And in some countries, like the Republic of Korea, nuclear plant financing has evolved over time from fully government financed to financing that, despite government own­ership of Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power, is subject to commercial rules and conditions so as not to distort an otherwise liberalized market.

For private sector entities engaged in nuclear power plants, government involvement and regulated markets guaranteed a firm customer base and electricity prices sufficiently high to assure a profitable return. Under these conditions, cost overruns and project delays were covered by higher elec­tricity prices and ultimately paid for by customers or from government budgets, thus minimizing the economic risk exposure of investors.

Challenge

The legal systems of most jurisdictions will provide mechanisms for the challenging of planning decisions because they are an important constitu­tional feature of a developed legal system in a democratic State. In the UK, such decisions are challengeable by judicial review proceedings in the High Court and the PA 2008 requires them to be initiated within six weeks of the publication of the reasons for the decision. The court will intervene only in limited circumstances if the planning decision is illegal or unreasonable or if there has been procedural unfairness. Planning decisions can be challenged by parties with sufficient standing, which includes many oppo­nents of nuclear power and also unsuccessful applicants. The long history of environmental opposition to nuclear power from NGOs makes the pros­pects of legal challenge likely and promoters will need to plan for this possibility.

A. GONZALEZ, Empresarios Agrupados, A. I.E., Spain

Abstract: The Bid Invitation Specification (BIS) is a crucial element of the procurement process of a new nuclear power plant. The BIS documents constitute the basis used by the prospective bidders to prepare their bids for the nuclear power plant contract. In the BIS documents, the owner provides information regarding the project, instructions for the bidding process to be followed up to contract award, bid evaluation criteria, bid structure and contents, scope of supply requested, main project schedule milestones, technical requirements, as well as commercial, contractual and financing conditions applicable to the supply. It should be noted that the scope, structure and contents of the BIS documents largely depend on the contract approach selected by the owner for the project.

Key words: bid invitation specifications, BIS for nuclear power plants, bidding for nuclear power plants, owner specification for nuclear power plants, acquisition of nuclear power plants.

18.2 Introduction

The decision by an electric utility (hereinafter, the owner) to build a nuclear power plant, as part of the long-term nuclear power programme in a given country, usually follows a feasibility study carried out to provide the utility management and the relevant authorities of the country with the necessary information on which to base the decision to go ahead with the project and which demonstrates that the project is actually viable from the technical, economic and financial points of view.

Once the owner takes the decision to build a new nuclear power plant, two main phases of project implementation follow:

• The acquisition phase

• The construction phase.

The acquisition phase, sometimes referred to as the preconstruction phase, typically includes the following main activities: [103]

• Request for bids from prospective vendors

• Bid preparation by bidders

• Technical and economic bid evaluation

• Selection of the successful bidder (i. e., the vendor or supplier) and con­tract negotiation

• Contract signature.

The preparation of the Bid Invitation Specifications (BIS) is one of the most important preconstruction activities to be carried out by the owner during the plant acquisition phase. This chapter focuses on the preparation by the owner of the BIS as the key document by way of which he provides the bidders with information about the project, instructions on how to prepare and submit their bids, the scope of supply he wishes to purchase and the requirements of all types (i. e., technical, commercial and contrac­tual) that he wishes to impose on the vendor for delivery of the plant.

The typical information that must be supplied by the owner in the FR docu­ment when the buyer’s credit approach is applied is as follows:

• Name of project

• Country of project

• Buyer and borrower identification

• Guarantor (if any)

• Financing project description

• Scope of financing required. For example, if financing is requested only to cover the foreign contents of the scope of supply:

— Portion of the bid scope and price for which financing is required

— Financing of escalation and interest during construction

— Financing of export credit agency (ECA) insurance premium

— Financing of charges and fees

Portions of the above-indicated items to be financed through a buyer’s credit insurance of the ECA or the exporting country and portions to be financed through a commercial loan

• Currency(ies) of the credit

• Starting date of the credit (typically the day of provisional takeover)

• Repayment terms.

To develop its human resources, a newly established RB needs significant assistance from an ER. Accordingly, they should establish long-term col­laborative links and develop a roadmap for human resources development. A core group of RB staff should receive practical training in the licensing, construction and operation at the reference NPP, as well as training from the ER in safety regulation of NPPs and use of safety standards. This core group in turn should impart training to other staff of the RB. The operating organization should similarly develop its human resources through corre­sponding cooperative activities with the reactor vendor.

Advanced training of selected RB staff in specific fields like reactor physics, health physics, thermal hydraulics and probabilistic safety analysis should be arranged with the ER, or with other institutions abroad. This training is generally provided by the nuclear engineering departments in universities, dedicated institutes and academies. The RB staff who will be engaged in the licensing of the NPP and its regulation during operation should study the NPP design and the operating experience of NPPs of a similar design in detail.

Peer reviews and OSART missions are conducted by independent agencies such as INPO, WANO and the IAEA. Peer reviews involve peer-to-peer comparison of practices between utilities and plants to identify areas for improvement in organisational effectiveness and the promotion of best practices.

Assessments of situations, conditions and practices are compared against industry standards based on good practices which are in the form of per­formance objectives and criteria (Pos and Cs).

Feedback to the utility is in the form of areas for improvement (AFIs), often accompanied with insights into the underlying causes of the deficien­cies identified.

The tangible product of a peer review or OSART mission is the mission report, but much of the benefit derived from hosting and participating in such missions is in the informal exchanges between peers.

Good practices identified in the course of such missions are captured and promoted through the industry in the form of Guidelines or Good Practices.

The Nuclear Technology Education Consortium (NTEC) is a consortium of 12 UK universities and other institutions providing postgraduate educa­tion in nuclear science and technology.

The structure and content of the programme, which leads to qualifica­tions up to Master’s level in nuclear science and technology, was established following extensive consultations with the UK nuclear sector, including industry, regulators and government departments among others.

All training modules are delivered by direct teaching but some have been converted into a distance learning format as an alternative method of deliv­ery to provide greater choice for students. The first modules in this format were launched in September 2008.

Modules are generally delivered on the campus of the providing institu­tion. Students seeking a postgraduate qualification register with the univer­sity of their choice and visit other members of the consortium to attend their selected modules. The programme is coordinated by the Dalton Nuclear Institute at the University of Manchester.

It is advisable to induct a small group of carefully selected personnel who have a few years of experience in conventional industry and put them through the nuclear orientation training as well as practical training in a research reactor or in a NPP. These personnel will form the technical core group for initiating the nuclear power programme in the country. This group can assist in drawing up the design specifications for the first NPP to be set up, interacting with international reactor vendors and finalizing the type and size of the NPP to be installed. Personnel of this core group will become the team leaders for the key activities during construction, com­missioning and operation of the NPP. They will in turn train their younger colleagues and thus help in creating a large cadre of well-groomed experts to manage the first NPP and the future expansion of nuclear power in the country.

7.1.1 Work discipline and safety culture

It is of utmost importance that right from the beginning a strong emphasis is laid on formal training and having well-formulated procedures in place for conduct of all activities. Further, quality assurance and careful attention to safety including industrial safety must be made an essential part of all work. These elements will aid in developing a strong work discipline and safety culture in the operating organization, as also in the regulatory body and the technical support organizations, which is so essential for the success of the nuclear power programme in the long run.

Fossil fuel reserves and potential resources are under constant evaluation. New deposits are found by exploration and by applying new extraction technologies, but the consumption rates of such fuels are increasing, mainly in developing countries. Because such resources are finite, they cannot be sustainable for a long time. Coal deposits are more abundant that oil and gas, but they too will come to an end. To avoid geopolitical tensions, it is necessary to use new sources of electricity production; it was this need that was at the root of the development of nuclear power for electricity production. The world growth of electricity production and the depletion of fossil fuels are the reasons why international institutions (NEA, 2008) are encouraging the construction of new nuclear power plants, and why individual countries, even countries with large reserves of gas and oil (such as the United Arab Emirates), have already embarked on the construction of nuclear power plants.

The steady substitution of oil and gas by nuclear power stations will moderate the effects of the increasing unavailability and potentially increas­ing prices of oil and gas as reserves diminish. Although uranium and thorium resources are large, they are also finite and will only be made sustainable for many centuries with the introduction of fuel reprocessing and breeder reactors. Such technology is already available. Fuel reprocessing is com­mercially conducted in France, the UK and other countries; fast breeder reactors, up to a technological and even commercial demonstration level, have been operated for years in France, the UK, Russia and Japan. New developments are now being considered and there are no intrinsic problems that could prevent the full commercial deployment of such technologies. Although these considerations are difficult to evaluate in numerical terms, they are clearly on the benefits side.

IRIS is a modular light water reactor with an integral primary system con­figuration designed by an international group of 20 organizations from nine countries led by Westinghouse. ARIS has a simplified compact design where the primary vessel houses steam generators, pressurizer and pumps; a novel safety approach; and an optimized refueling cycle with intervals of at least four years. Due to its integral configuration, in IRIS a variety of accidents are by design either eliminated or their consequences and/or probability of occurring are greatly reduced. This provides a superb defense in depth which may allow IRIS to support a claim of no need for an emergency response zone.