The value of modern decision-making support services to fusion projects

Regardless of the power generation process, whether fission or fusion, a nuclear power plant (NPP) is a complex system of thousands of components and equipment. It is also subject to stringent requirements in terms of safety, environmental impacts, schedule and cost-competitiveness. ing experience from test and propulsion reactors recently designed and built by AREVA TA – more than 10 reactors with 4 different designs in the past 12 years – and from NPPs recently built in Asia and the AREVA NP EPR under construction at the Okiluoto site in Finland highlight the added value of the latest engineering methods. methods meet project management standards issued in the past five years and are based on a global approach and continuous improvement of the process. They significantly minimize risk for the customer, the public and the environment. ientific and technical complexities are significantly higher in the case of a new fusion power plant project. There is very little operating experience from previous scientific machine projects, especially in the fields of nuclear facility integration, nuclear safety culture, human factors, integrated logistics support, nuclear operations and decommissioning requirements to be factored in at the design and construction stages. es are provided from AREVA group experience to show the versatility of the engineering approach and present some successful adaptations of these methods in a variety of technical fields with varying levels of engineering responsibility. aper focus on decision-making support services in the following areas: performance management, interface management (including physical as well as functional interfaces) and integration management. The contribution of CAD and PDM (Product Data Management) is discussed. This paper describes how the fusion community can benefit from the best engineering practices of nuclear companies.