It’s hard to go first. So, NEI has developed best practices to support early movers. This is designed to improve predictability and confidence in the delivery of new nuclear power projects. Numerous nuclear and large-scale infrastructure projects—both in the United States and internationally—have demonstrated that disciplined project structure, effective leadership, and integrated planning can result in on-time and on-budget performance. The experience has also shown that continuous buildout of standardized designs can lead to rapid and significant reductions in costs.
The best practices are supported by over 100 nuclear and non-nuclear megaprojects. Together, they provide a practical roadmap for planning, organizing, and executing new nuclear construction projects with greater confidence, accountability, and transparency—laying the foundation for a sustainable, repeatable success of nuclear project deployments on-time and on-budget. Take a look at our resources for removing roadblocks to deployment. Here we include our publicly available information.
For NEI Members, please visit the NEI member page for access to the full set of reports.
Strategic Project Management Lessons Learned & Best Practices for New Nuclear Power Construction
This report focuses on the lessons learned and subsequent best practices to be used when planning and preparing for a new nuclear power project to increase the likelihood of successful outcomes. This report provides best practices that if implemented, will create the foundation for the nuclear industry’s success.NEI 20-08
Design Completion and Reliability of Schedule and Cost Estimations to Support Construction Decisions
This guide explains how to plan and manage a new nuclear project using a structured Phase Gate approach that connects design progress with schedule and cost accuracy. Each Phase Gate represents a key decision point where the project team evaluates whether the design, schedule, and estimate are mature enough to move forward. By following this process, the Final Notice to Proceed (FNTP) is based on a realistic and achievable foundation for project execution.IG-01 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Organizational Challenges, Collaborative Contracting Strategies, and Aggressive Risk and Opportunity Management
This guide provides practical contracting and risk frameworks that increase confidence in meeting cost and schedule by focusing on the benefits of collaborative approaches to project delivery and execution together with an aggressive risk management plan to support project success. This approach aligns the objectives of project stakeholders while actively managing risk thereby increasing confidence in the ability to deliver the project to cost and schedule.IG-02 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Extreme Ownership, Experience of Stakeholders, Owner Led Integrated Project Team, and Ingrained Nuclear Construction Quality and Safety Culture Mentality
This guide focuses on the people who will be needed to manage a new nuclear power project and how to establish a durable accountability structure for planning and executing these projects. It discusses the challenges and provides guidance for successfully evaluating and implementing an Integrated Project Team.IG-03 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
FOAK Planning Considerations, Construction Shiftwork/Productivity, and Modularization
This guide gives guidance on understanding how FOAK elements can impact a new nuclear power project. The tradeoffs associated with modularization, and how to optimize construction productivity. The document offers practical insights for internal project stakeholders making early execution strategy choices.IG-04 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Project Management, Integrated Project Schedule and Reporting Systems, and Configuration Management / Design Control
This guide covers three areas of interest: building and running an Integrated Project Schedule, simplifying data through KPIs and dashboards, and implementing robust configuration/change control. Understanding these topics will enable leaders to integrate tools, teams, and information for timely decisions and effective execution.IG-05 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Fast Follower Framework for New Nuclear Deployment
The serial construction and manufacture of new nuclear technologies must lead to lower costs – if not, resources will be diverted to other technologies. Cost and construction duration savings will only be realized under certain conditions that result in a positive overall project learning rate. This document outlines 1) the arrangement that likely maximizes a project’s ability to incorporate learnings to move down the learning curve toward NOAK faster and 2) how to achieve a larger learning rate which enables a steeper learning curve to realize greater benefits at the same deployment unit. The incorporation of learnings is not an “all-or-nothing” proposition. Even when project realities prevent the most optimal learning scenario from being realized, there is still benefit in adopting learnings “nuggets” where possible.NEI 24-07 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Fleet Deployment Models For Standardized New Nuclear Deployments
As industry deploys a significant amount of new nuclear generation, there exists an opportunity to realize greater effectiveness, efficiency, and cost savings compared to the operating fleet today. However, this requires standardization, centralization, and collaboration before projects are completed. As such, this report documents how decisions in planning deployment impact the capability to maximize benefits in operations.NEI 24-06 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
