Some practical recommendations for facilitating the preparation of the BIS

are indicated below:

• Develop a solid multidisciplinary team, organised under the direction of a Project Manager, composed of experts who preferably have experi­ence in nuclear projects. If this is not possible in certain areas, they should at least have experience in conventional power plant or large industrial projects.

• Prepare a detailed schedule showing all activities to be carried out and documents to be prepared, issued and reviewed by the different participants.

• Preferably, the BIS preparation team members should work in the same building or close to one another to ensure better integration of the work.

• Prepare the BIS documents using modern information technology (IT) tools in order to facilitate document production, revision and control. It is important to track and control the comments from the different par­ticipants and the changes made in the different versions of the BIS documents.

• The owner should always be in control of the work performed by the external A/E and/or specialised consultant (if any).

• The national nuclear regulatory authorities should be made aware of the work being done to prepare the BIS and be invited to provide their comments to the licensing, nuclear safety and other technical require­ments specified in the BIS.

• It is advisable to hold periodic meetings with prospective bidders to review with them the BIS preparation approach being taken and to get their feedback.

• Existing reactor vendor standard plant designs, when available from the prospective bidders, should be taken into account during preparation of the BIS to ensure that the technical requirements set out in the BIS are realistic and based as much as possible on designs that are actually avail­able on the market.

• It is of the utmost importance to have performed a comprehensive and detailed site study beforehand, so that reliable and complete site data (seismic, geological and environmental conditions, hydrology, cooling water characteristics, grid information, population distribution, social and industrial development) is available. This will enable the bidders to

prepare better bids and subsequently, to proceed more effectively with the plant design phase.

• To facilitate future bid evaluation work by the owner, special attention should be paid in the BIS to giving instructions to the bidders regarding the required structure and contents of their bids. This will ensure that all of the bids have similar structures, contents and information, which makes it easier to review and locate information in the bids.