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

2021

IEEE Eng. Manag. Rev.

Self Cite

The vast majority of projects deals with their "front-end", i.e. the planning and delivery of new assets, goods and services, including building infrastructure, developing new drugs, and coding software. However, more and more projects need to deal with their "back-ends", such as decommissioning infrastructure, withdrawing dangerous drugs from the market and eliminating malign software. While the "front-end" of projects, and organizations involved in projects, have been empirically investigated for millennia (and academically for decades), the "back-ends" of projects is a novel field with extremely limited practical and academic knowledge. The management of "back-end" projects are peculiar since it lacks traditional project motivations (e.g. usually there is not cash flow at the end of a "back-end" project), the stakeholders are different (e.g. drug addicts and not patients), and the organizations involved might have very different agendas (e.g. criminal organizations). This paper discusses the relevance and peculiarities of "back-end" projects, providing key insights to manage them.

Section: For Instance Within the Construction Industry Benchmarking Interests Have Risen Because Bymentioning

confidence: 99%

Is Your Organization Ready for Managing “Back-End” Projects?

2021

IEEE Eng. Manag. Rev.

Self Cite

“…Decommissioning projects in the energy sector can relate to offshore gas production infrastructure [39], dams [40], wave energy [41], heat pumps systems [42] and nuclear reactors [43]. Remarkably, despite their growing importance and their growing costs in several industrial sectors (e.g., nuclear and offshore oil & gas decommissioning), until now, decommissioning projects have been mostly overlooked by scholars working on the economics and management of energy infrastructure.…”

Section: Relevance Of the Ndp Research Context And Selection Of The Unit Of Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While QCA applications have adopted numerous approaches to identify possible project characteristics, the authors adopted an inductive approach, as "conditions are mostly selected on the basis of case knowledge and not on existing theories" (p. 1163) [19]. Indeed, there is a lack of established theory on NDP characteristics that are important for the project performance of NDP, so these characteristics need to be elaborated from the NDP knowledge [43]. However, the deductive and inductive approaches are not mutually exclusive, "but rather an essential continuity and inseparability between inductive and deductive approaches to theory development" [63].…”

Section: Step 2: Derivation and Description Of Ndp Characteristics And Performance And Their Operationalization Into Binary Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Qualitative comparative analysis as a method for project studies: The case of energy infrastructure

Invernizzi

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

Brookes

et al. 2020

Self Cite

“…through clear objectives, incentives, etc. Thus, collaboration and buy-in can be achieved by including the key stakeholders early in the decision-making process, for example through a VM study which could both tackle social challenges at both at a "macro-level" (Invernizzi et al 2017) and a "microlevel" (Invernizzi, et al 2018).…”

Section: Constraints Of Decommissioning Projects and The Potential Role Of Vmmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These decommissioning projects have common characteristics that differentiate them from more traditional construction endeavours. At the completion of these projects (Invernizzi et al 2017;Invernizzi et al 2019):…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Applying value management when it seems that there is no value to be managed: the case of nuclear decommissioning

Invernizzi

International Journal of Project Management

Gronqvist

et al. 2019

Self Cite

The vast majority of project management literature relating to infrastructure focuses on the project lifecycle up to commissioning and handover. Conversely, little attention has been paid to the end-oflife of infrastructure, i.e. when decommissioning begins. Infrastructure decommissioning projects are long and complex projects, involving an extensive network of stakeholders. Moreover, their budgets can reach hundreds of billions of Euros and, for many of these projects, keep increasing. Since decommissioning projects do not generate direct revenues, they are often considered an expensive nuisance with limited value linked to their delivery. This paper explores the use of Value Management (VM), examining the constraints of decommissioning projects and the requirements for successful implementation of VM, focusing on the nuclear industry due to its techno-socio-economic relevance.Findings derived from the application of content analysis on semi-structured interviews with experienced decommissioning practitioners include suggestions on how to implement VM, ultimately contributing to increase the knowledge on how deliver decommissioning projects with better performance.