Document management and regulatory oversight during the construction of nuclear power plants.

Documentation in the construction of a nuclear power plant (NPP) represents not merely a technical archive, but also a formal licensing basis for the operation of the facility. It is a critically important tool for justifying safety (Safety Case) and ensuring traceability of all adopted design, construction, and operation decisions.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) emphasizes that maintaining the physical state of the facility in accordance with its documentation (Configuration Management, CM) is fundamental to safety. Statistics show that up to 25% of reported incidents in the nuclear industry can be caused by configuration errors or deficiencies.¹ The CM system, based on accurate as-built documentation, ensures timely provision of reliable information, enabling safe and economically efficient decisions.¹

Historically, in older NPP projects, documentation problems were mainly related to keeping it up to date after many years of operation and modifications.² However, in modern Gen III+ NPP projects, a different, more acute problem has emerged: insufficient maturity of the initial Working Documentation (WD) at the start of physical construction. This factor, as shown by examples in the United States (Vogtle) and Europe (Olkiluoto 3), led to unprecedented delays and multiple increases in capital costs.³ The essence of this problem is that construction work begins before detailed design is fully completed and verified.