The emerging nations: The opportunities for nuclear power

The experience from nuclear power programmes in developing countries has been a varied as in the industrialized world. Some programmes include projects which have achieved short and controlled project construction times and excellent operating performance, rating among the best achieved in the world. Both the Argentinian and Korean programmes are good examples. Other projects have run into serious construction delays, cost overruns and low operating availability. It is very often possible to trace experienced problems to the weaker infrastructures which exist in the developing countries. The same point can be made for both developing and industrialized countries that some plant owners have demonstrated very good and consistent performance, e.g., with plant availabilities of more than 85% over several years. They have thus shown what can be achieved. The variations below that are, however, too large. One of the tasks of the IAEA is to try to assist other owners to attain this higher level of performance - both in plant construction and operation - by trying to understand the fundamental reasons for the differences and to provide guidance for improvement