  In the first section, this report analyses Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) in the
context of megaprojects, explaining why they are often delivered over budget
and late. In the second section, the report discusses how Small Modular
Reactors (SMRs) might address these issues. Megaprojects are extremely risky
and often implemented after a sub-optimal phase of project planning leading to
underestimations of the costs and overestimation of short-term benefits. When
considering adherence to schedule and budget, often megaprojects might be
considered a failure, and optimism bias, strategic mis-rapresentation,
complexity, poor planning, poor risk allocation, poor scope management are all
reasons to explain their over budget and delay. For megaprojects, especially in
the nuclear field, a key strategy to achieve good performances appears to be
the standardization. This standardization needs to be twofold: (i) technical
standardisation, i.e. the construction of very similar design over and over,
and (ii) the project delivery chain standardisation, i.e. the same stakeholders
involved in the delivery of a project that is replicable multiple times. Under
this perspective, given their size and standardisation potential, SMRs, might
be a suitable class of NPP for several countries. Yet, if the economy of scale
is the only driver considered, SMRs are hardly competitive with large NPPs (or
even with gas or coal power plants). However, a fleet of standard SMRs might
balance the lack of economy of scale with the economy of multiples, and the
delivery of several standardised SMR projects might be the key to achieve good
project management performances in the nuclear sector. However, the deployment
of SMRs faces a number of challenges from several perspectives, such as the
licencing, supply chain and financing ones. These challenges might be enormous,
but so are the potential rewards too.
