Procurement in the Nuclear Industry, Quality, Safety and Decision Making

The major purpose of the present study is partly to map and partly to make an analysis of the decision processes in the procurement routines in the nuclear industry in order to provide a basis for: 1. further development of safety inspections about procurements for Swedish Radiation Safety Authority 2. improvements of safety management in connection with procurement within a nuclear-power plant, 3 improvements of procurement routines in general in a nuclear power plant. The procurement processes at a nuclear power plant were analyzed from a decision theoretic perspective. Key staff at the plant was interviewed and written instructions as well as digitalized processes were used in the analysis. The results illustrate the most important moments during the procurement process with descriptions from interviews and documents. The staff at the nuclear power plant used a multi-attribute utility decision theory MAUT-inspired model in evaluation of alternatives and both compensatory (in which negative aspects can be compensated by positive aspects) and non-compensatory (in which certain 'pass' levels of attributes have to be exceeded for a choice) decision rules were used in the procurement process. Not surprising, nuclear safety was evaluated in a non-compensatory manner following regulatory criteria while costs were evaluated in trade-off compensatory rules, which means that a weakness in one consideration might be compensated by strength in another consideration. Thus, nuclear safety above the regulator's and law requirements are not integrated in a compensatory manner when procurement alternatives are evaluated. The nuclear plant assessed an organization's safety culture at an early stage of the purchasing process. A successful and a less successful procurement case were reported with the lessons learned from them. We find that the existing written instructions for purchase were well elaborated and adequate. There is a lack of personal resources when procurement teams are formed. This means that external personal sometimes has to be engaged in such a team and therefore the emphasis on safety has to be communicated effectively to those joining the team from outside the plant. From a competition point of view, the number of potential suppliers is often too small. There is a feedback system of experience from previous contracts, but this information is of little use since it is not documented so that it is possible to conduct a quick and efficient information search, which would be a weakness when safety and quality information is needed quickly in a procurement process.