Construction time of PWRs

The construction time of PWRs is studied considering published data about nuclear power plants in the world. For the 268 PWRs in operation in 2010, the mode of the construction time distribution is around 5–6 years, and 80% of the plants were built in less than 120 months. To circumvent the problem of comparing plants with different size we normalized the construction time to plants with 1GW. We restricted the analysis to 201 PWRs which suffered less from external factors that were beyond the control of the management from 1965 to 2010. The results showed that the normalized construction time did not increase over the years and nor with the plants’ gross power level. The learning rate of the industry regarding normalized construction times showed a reduction with 95% confidence level of about 0.56±0.07 months for each 10GW of installed capacity. Over the years the normalized construction time decreased and became more predictable. The data showed that countries with more centralized regulatory, construction and operation environments were able to build PWRs in shorter times. Countries less experienced with the nuclear technology built PWRs in longer times.