The Organization and Management of Nuclear Power Plants

John S. Carroll and Peter B. Cebon

Feb-90

John S. Carroll and Peter B. Cebon, February 1990

Nuclear power plants are a controversial technology. The future of the industry depends on the ability to manage efficiently and safely, and to effectively manage organizational change as new technologies and practices are introduced and disseminated. This paper provides a conceptual framework and discussion of the management and organization of nuclear power plants around three questions: (1) How should nuclear power plants be organized and managed to ensure that they are operated most safely and efficiently? (2) What does an understanding of the organization and management of nuclear power plants tell us about how they change or resist change? and (3) What indicators or measures of various characteristics and processes of nuclear power plants are needed in order to address the above questions? We review existing literature on the organization and management of nuclear power plants, and suggest how we would structure a research project to address the above questions.