Abstract
Due to the nature of its technology, nuclear power is subject to strict regulations and intense pressures over operational safety. Additionally, nuclear new build projects are increasingly facing a distinct set of challenges including high commercial risks, deployment uncertainty, and cost and schedule overruns. In the West, technological innovation activities over the past three decades have struggled to overcome these challenges to make the industry a more viable one.
The nuclear industry is not alone; similar features characterised the U.S. space sector, but since 2008 it has been showing an increase in commercial activities. By utilising the case study approach, this research conducted a comparative analysis with the U.S. space industry to analyse the innovation process that has evolved within the industry, since its long period of stagnation and constraint following the Challenger Accident in 1986.
In highly regulated industries where technologies face various adoption challenges, this research suggests that the underlying issues are more likely to be institutional and organisational rather than technical. The comparative analysis, alongside interviews and workshops held with experts in the UK-SMR project, suggested the need to drive institutional and organisational change within highly regulated industries to support technological innovation efforts within private-led initiatives. Through organisational innovation, the UK-SMR project could address the affordability and delivery challenges facing nuclear new build, to support the role of nuclear power as a technology that could facilitate rapid transition to low carbon power in the global efforts to tackle climate change.
This research focuses on the role of ancillary technologies and suggests that they are under-utilised in nuclear new build projects. An institutional change strategy is proposed, and a framework and roadmap to support organisational innovation is developed, to facilitate the adoption of ancillary technologies for faster, better, cheaper UK-SMR power plants.