Nuclear Project Scheduling Software for New Build, SMR and Outage Work

A nuclear schedule uses the same logic as any engineering project, but the cost of getting it wrong is higher and the constraints are tighter:

• Regulatory hold points. Licence applications, safety analysis reports and construction permits sit on the critical path. Work cannot start until a regulator says so, and the regulator's timeline is not yours to compress.
• Long-lead, single-source equipment. Reactor vessels, steam generators, large forgings and fuel are made by a handful of qualified suppliers. A slip at the forge moves the whole project, which is why procurement belongs in the schedule, not in a separate spreadsheet. Our nuclear supplier identification work exists for the same reason.
• Quality assurance gates. Inspections, witness points and document reviews add activities that general construction schedules leave out.
• Fixed outage windows. In a refuelling outage every day offline is lost generation. The US Energy Information Administration reported that US refuelling outages averaged 34 days in 2024 (to the end of July), down from 38 days in 2023. Shaving days depends on knowing exactly which jobs drive the finish.
• Many contractors, one finish date. Owner, EPC, vendors and specialist subcontractors each keep their own plans. The integrated schedule is the only place where their logic meets.

The critical path view below is the heart of any nuclear project management tool. In the demo, the geological survey, the safety analysis report and the construction permit drive reactor core design, which drives vessel fabrication. The NRC licence application runs alongside with 30 days of float, so a 20-day slip there costs nothing, while a 14-day slip in the safety analysis report moves the forecast finish by 14 days. That difference is the whole point of CPM.

The dashboard turns the same schedule into the numbers a project director reports: duration-weighted progress, forecast finish against baseline, the count of critical activities, SPI and a cost S-curve. Nothing is typed in twice.

Resource loading closes the loop. The histogram compares monthly hours with capacity, so a schedule that looks fine on the Gantt but needs the same lead engineer in two places at once shows up in red.

Usually not. There is no certificate for scheduling software. NQA-1 and 10 CFR 50 Appendix B are quality assurance requirements for safety-related work, including software used in safety-related design, analysis and control. A project or outage schedule normally does not perform a safety function, so it is controlled under the owner's own software procedures, graded to its risk.

That is also how Primavera P6 is used: it is not an NQA-1 certified product. NQA-1 applies to the organisation and its quality programme, not to a product label. Part II, Subpart 2.7 of NQA-1 sets requirements for computer software used in nuclear facility applications, and commercial software that does perform a safety function is accepted through commercial-grade dedication under the owner's programme.

What this means for you:

To be clear about NuPlan itself: it is a public demonstrator with fictional data, not a qualified or certified product. When we build a scheduler for a client, we deliver it under the client's software QA procedure and host it where their policies require.