Recommended actions: According to the WNA, governments and the nuclear industry need to work together on the following actions, which prioritize supply chain sustainability and agility:
- Enact government policies that signal long-term support for nuclear energy infrastructure and incentivize investment in nuclear projects and in supply chain capacity and capabilities.
- Streamline processes for licensing nuclear power plants and encourage the development of international fleets of standard reactors.
- Harmonize technical regulations and supplier requirements by increasing industry and regulatory collaboration, and ensure that licensing and supply chain oversight activities are streamlined.
- Simplify procurement models to give suppliers a greater line of sight of tenders, help them participate in project offerings, and develop standardized procurement frameworks and more cooperative contracting models.
- Use analyses of recent nuclear power plant construction projects as a baseline for developing a stronger and more agile supply chain, including codes of conduct and best practices.
- “Provide reasonable assurance that a commercial grade item to be used in a safety system or mission-essential facility meets specified requirements.”
- Educate the finance community about the sustainability of nuclear energy and encourage nuclear companies to embed ESG (environmental, social, and governance) principles within their supply chains.
- Perform comprehensive supply chain readiness analyses for nuclear new build and long-term operation demand, capability, and capacity.
- Promote collaboration to fill gaps and mitigate bottlenecks across projects and suppliers.
- Promote government and public-private research and innovation programs on enabling technologies, such as robotics, artificial intelligence, digital services, advanced manufacturing, and modular construction services.
Investment: The 2023 edition of the report emphasizes that nuclear expansion is needed to meet global net-zero climate, energy security, and sustainability targets. It notes that its recommended actions will require “a sustained and coordinated investment in the global nuclear supply chain.”
In the newly released 2023 edition of The World Nuclear Supply Chain report, the World Nuclear Association recommends a number of actions to ensure that the international supply chain remains “suitably robust, competitive, and adaptive to meet the anticipated need for long-term operation and new nuclear build.”