Historically, nuclear engineering has been built around requirements for stability and rigour. This approach, which guarantees a high level of safety, has sometimes slowed down the adoption of new methods. As a result, the industry, a pillar of our energy sovereignty, is at a turning point. It must modernise its facilities, optimise its operations, control its costs and cope with increasing regulatory pressure.

To ensure its competitiveness and meet the imperatives of sobriety and efficiency, it can draw inspiration from solutions developed in the automotive industry – a sector that has successfully evolved in the face of comparable constraints and developed robust tools to manage complex projects while ensuring their profitability.

The automotive industry has widely adopted digital tools to streamline its processes and improve product quality. These tools, which include digital twins, advanced management systems and real-time simulations, make it possible to anticipate problems before they arise.

In the nuclear industry, where every delay or deviation has major financial and societal consequences, these technologies could make a significant difference. Maintenance visits (VP/VD), which are planned several years in advance, generate additional costs as soon as an unforeseen event occurs. A single unanticipated deviation can delay the entire schedule and cause costs to spiral by several million euros. The use of advanced digital solutions would make it possible to better anticipate these contingencies, optimise the coordination of interventions and secure deadlines.

Already used in the automotive, aeronautics and space industries, additive manufacturing enables complex parts to be produced quickly, with high precision and at lower cost. For example, a space tank can be produced in two days instead of six months, with a 25% reduction in mass; a turbojet blade can be manufactured in less than a month, with a 20% weight reduction.

Applied to the nuclear industry, this technology could significantly speed up the production or repair of critical components (valves, pumps, exchangers, etc.), reduce the need for complex machining, and make parts available that are currently unavailable on the market.

In the nuclear industry, certain components are no longer available. Replacing them requires costly requalification, with delays of several months. Additive manufacturing could meet these need ly in a matter of days, while limiting the need for storage, which ties up capital.

Regulatory barriers still need to be removed, in particular the approval of these processes in accordance with industry standards. However, work is underway in this direction, with industrial maturity expected by 2030. It is therefore strategic to prepare the industry for this transformation now.

Logistics management is another area where the automotive industry excels, thanks in particular to “lean” approaches that limit waste and optimise supply chains. These practices, which can reduce logistics costs in the automotive industry by up to 20%, could be adapted to improve flow or land management. Whether for fuel, components or waste, a lean approach could help reduce project costs and lead times without compromising quality.

This optimisation is particularly relevant in older buildings, which are often undersized and saturated. Reorganisation inspired by industrial methods would increase productivity, improve safety and limit periods of facility downtime.

The automotive industry has invested heavily in life cycle assessment to measure and reduce its carbon footprint. This methodology could be used in the nuclear industry to assess the full environmental impact of reactors, from design to decommissioning, as well as that of fuel and waste.

LCA is an essential strategic tool for making the industry sustainable. It allows often invisible externalities (pollution, resource consumption, social impacts, etc.) to be taken into account in decision-making, prioritising the most resilient solutions and objectifying investment choices.

The automotive industry relies on cost engineering to anticipate budget overruns and optimise choices from the design stage onwards. This approach, which focuses on total cost, would enable the nuclear industry to better control its investments.

It is no longer just a question of evaluating the unit cost of a component, but of integrating all the costs at completion: delays, unplanned shutdowns, inventory immobilisation or supply delays. An inexpensive part can generate significant additional costs if it is missing. Cost engineering provides this global vision, which is essential in a sector where each day of delay can cost several million euros.

Of course, some players in the nuclear industry are already using some of these solutions. But at present, they are under-exploited across the sector as a whole. Multi-specialist engineers, who already work in sectors as diverse as automotive, aeronautics and energy, have a key role to play here. Their cross-disciplinary expertise enables them to apply proven methodologies to new contexts. By mobilising these skills, the nuclear industry could benefit from the most advanced engineering practices to accelerate its transformation.