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Publicatie Laka-bibliotheek:
Time is money, but sometimes it costs more: an economic history perspective into nuclear projects’ pitfalls

Auteur	Mar Rubio-Varas
	6-01-0-10-89.pdf
Datum	juli 2022
Classificatie	6.01.0.10/89 (KOSTEN)
Voorkant

Time is money, but sometimes it costs more: an economic history 
perspective into nuclear projects’ pitfalls
Mar Rubio-Varas
Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics (INARBE), 
Universidad Publica de Navarra (UPNA), Pamplona, Spain
Received 19 April 2021
Accepted 20 June 2022
published in: JOURNAL OF MEGA INFRASTRUCTURE & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
22 July 2022

ABSTRACT
The changing socio-economic context has a crucial impact in
nuclear decisions and execution of the projects. The nuclear projects
initiated over the past 20 years reduced their construction
times relative to those initiated before. Of the over 600 the
nuclear projects built over the past 70 years only 3% took longer
than 15 years to complete. Analysing the lengthiest projects
within their economic context, reveals that ‘when and where’,
(i.e., the contextual risks) explains most the delays, thus questioning
whether nuclear power plant projects are inherently examples
of the megaproject ‘pathologies.’ The analysis of the lengthiest
nuclear power projects makes evident that the failure to deliver
nuclear plants on time and within budget was related to the historical
period and/or the specific location more than to any inherent
characteristics of nuclear power plants. Stakeholders of
nuclear projects (and megaprojects in general) should be attentive
to socio-economic changes and macro-economic impacts to
avoid pitfalls.