Abstract

Very few papers exist in the field of social sciences that follow and study nuclear infrastructure design projects from the inside. Such a perspective would make it possible to understand the mechanisms of their successes or difficulties at their very origin. At a time when high hopes are placed on civil nuclear energy to solve the climate issue, but when simultaneously, nuclear industry actors are facing major difficulties in a great number of flagship projects, this situated understanding of any given project’s trajectory becomes crucially important. This paper proposes an analysis, from the inside, of a project that, about ten years ago, raised great expectations from both the French and global nuclear industry, but which, in 2019, was finally halted. This project is that of a so-called fourth generation sodium reactor: the Advanced Sodium Technological Reactor for Industrial Demonstration (ASTRID). ASTRID was a new sodium-cooled fast reactor. Begun in 2010, the project’s development was suspended at the end of 2019 by the French authorities. Through an inductive study of the project in the making, conducted from 2015 to 2019, the research team was able to follow the project trajectory and carry out nearly 30 interviews with actors directly involved in the project itself. By studying ASTRID as an infrastructure development project and building on the concepts of scale and infrastructure from the literature, the ASTRID project’s halt can be understood. The project’s suspension was the result of the increasing complexity and ambiguity faced by project members and stakeholders in aligning the local and global scales as the new infrastructure was developed, and more precisely, the ASTRID project infrastructure and the global nuclear infrastructure. Our analyses show that ASTRID’s trajectory gradually drifted as a result of three misalignments between the project’s infrastructure and the global nuclear infrastructure: a temporal, social, and physical misalignment. As a result, the project identity can be described as having been vague and ambiguous. This paper sets out how such a lack of clarity impacted design practices, the project organization as a whole, and the ASTRID trajectory. In consequence, it is crucially important that lessons are learned from the project’s cessation to understand both the difficulties related to the nuclear renaissance and in terms of the field of project management in general.

摘要

在社会科学领域，很少有论文从内部跟踪和研究核基础设施设计项目。这种观点将使我们有可能从根源上了解他们成功或困难的机制。在人们对民用核能解决气候问题寄予厚望但同时，核工业参与者在大量旗舰项目中面临重大困难时，这种对任何特定项目轨迹的情境理解变得至关重要。本文从内部对一个项目进行了分析，该项目大约在十年前曾让法国和全球核工业都寄予厚望，但该项目最终于 2019 年停止。这个项目是所谓的第四代钠反应器：用于工业示范的先进钠技术反应堆 (ASTRID)。ASTRID 是一种新型钠冷快堆。该项目于 2010 年开始，于 2019 年底被法国当局暂停开发。通过对 2015 年至 2019 年进行中的项目的归纳研究，研究团队能够跟踪项目轨迹，并对直接参与项目本身的参与者进行了近 30 次采访。通过将 ASTRID 作为基础设施开发项目进行研究，并以文献中的规模和基础设施概念为基础，可以理解 ASTRID 项目的停止。该项目的暂停是由于随着新基础设施的开发，项目成员和利益相关者在调整当地和全球规模时面临的复杂性和模糊性日益增加，更准确地说，是 ASTRID 项目基础设施和全球核基础设施。我们的分析表明，由于项目基础设施与全球核基础设施之间的三个错位：时间、社会和物理错位，ASTRID 的轨迹逐渐漂移。因此，项目标识可以被描述为含糊不清。本文阐述了这种缺乏清晰度如何影响设计实践、整个项目组织以及 ASTRID 轨迹。因此，从项目停止中吸取经验教训以了解与核复兴相关的困难和项目管理领域的总体困难至关重要。我们的分析表明，由于项目基础设施与全球核基础设施之间的三个错位：时间、社会和物理错位，ASTRID 的轨迹逐渐漂移。因此，项目标识可以被描述为含糊不清。本文阐述了这种缺乏清晰度如何影响设计实践、整个项目组织以及 ASTRID 轨迹。因此，从项目停止中吸取经验教训以了解与核复兴相关的困难和项目管理领域的总体困难至关重要。我们的分析表明，由于项目基础设施与全球核基础设施之间的三个错位：时间、社会和物理错位，ASTRID 的轨迹逐渐漂移。因此，项目标识可以被描述为含糊不清。本文阐述了这种缺乏清晰度如何影响设计实践、整个项目组织以及 ASTRID 轨迹。因此，从项目停止中吸取经验教训以了解与核复兴相关的困难和项目管理领域的总体困难至关重要。和物理错位。因此，项目标识可以被描述为含糊不清。本文阐述了这种缺乏清晰度如何影响设计实践、整个项目组织以及 ASTRID 轨迹。因此，从项目停止中吸取经验教训以了解与核复兴相关的困难和项目管理领域的总体困难至关重要。和物理错位。因此，项目标识可以被描述为含糊不清。本文阐述了这种缺乏清晰度如何影响设计实践、整个项目组织以及 ASTRID 轨迹。因此，从项目停止中吸取经验教训以了解与核复兴相关的困难和项目管理领域的总体困难至关重要。