Organizational and institutional effects on safety and efficiency in nuclear power plants.

Abstract

This dissertation explores the extent to which organizational and institutional factors continue to influence the economic and safety performance of nuclear power plants. Although the importance of non-technological factors during the developmental period of nuclear power has been recognized after the fact, most contemporary research fails to recognize the continued importance of organizational and institutional factors for ongoing nuclear power plant operations. Moreover, a second generation of advanced nuclear reactors is now imminent but technological advances will not suffice to prevent many of the mistakes of this first era of nuclear power. The lessons learned from our experience with the current generation of nuclear power plants must include more than technological improvements. As yet a systematic investigation of the impact of organizational and institutional factors on nuclear power plant performance has not been conducted. This dissertation progresses us much further toward accomplishing this task, although much additional research is still needed.