5.1.3 Preconstruction activities

The decision to construct a nuclear power station involves the commitment of huge resources, so it is not one that can be taken without careful consideration. The decision-making process must be rigorous and comprehensive.

Initially the decision-making process involves an appraisal of the socio­economic circumstances, to determine if new generating capacity is required and to determine if a nuclear power station is an acceptable option to satisfy such a need.

If the politics and the demand for new generation are favourable the next phase will involve a decision to commit finance. The financial appraisal must include consideration for the choice of site, the design options, the funding options available and the electricity market model in which the plant will operate. These tasks will require specific knowledge and experience, which must be established in the operating organisation several years before build commences.

In addition the operating organisation must recognise and cater for the demands of the regulatory process associated with new build and acquisi­tions. These can be very lengthy and resource demanding, so they require a strategy and a fully resourced plan for dealing with them in order to optimise the timescales and costs involved.

The decision to build must also take into account the availability of a suitable infrastructure to manufacture, build and operate the plant. For many years the manufacturing sector was dormant due to a lack of orders.

Many of the major manufacturers survived on the basis of manufacturing replacement parts, design upgrades and service activities. Clearly such activ­ities resulted in a reduction of staff and a loss of competencies, which have had to be renewed in a very short timescale.

The nuclear renaissance has come with a rapid surge in demand for plant and equipment, so manufacturing capacity is further stretched to capacity. Similarly, universities and other educational institutions that provided train­ing for nuclear industry workers closed down courses and reassigned staff to other educational programmes (see Chapter 6).

The current approach to licensing of nuclear plants seeks to establish generically approved designs. However, each site chosen for construction must be assessed to determine if it can satisfy generic design requirements and to assess the environmental impact of that design on the site, through all phases of construction, commissioning and operation. These studies and the generic design characteristics will form the basis for the decision to grant licences and the conditions associated with the licences. The execution of such studies will require specialist skills.

The preconstruction activities are costly and resource intensive, as well as being quite lengthy in nature. It can be concluded from this brief descrip­tion of the decision-making process that the prospective operator must commit significant resources and commence the construction of the operat­ing organisation well before the decision to build is taken.