Market analysis for digital transformation  and asset managment tools in  nuclear  

 

 

Project Overview: Damona conducted an exhaustive market analysis, exploring the digital transformation technologies within the nuclear sector globally, with a focus on identifying opportunities for innovation and efficiency enhancement in asset management technologies. This comprehensive study aimed to understand the technology landscape, the key players, and the dynamics of the market.

Market Dynamics and Challenges: The analysis faced challenges related to deciphering the complex market dynamics of technology providers and intricate value chain links. As digital transformation in the nuclear sector involves multiple stakeholders, the complexity of relationships and technological integration becomes evident, affecting both implementation and operational scalability.

Implementation Process: The typical implementation process for digital transformation projects aimed at enhancing physical asset management includes:

• Hiring a Digital Transformation Consultant: This initial step often involves outsourcing logistics and contracting to a consulting team. This team collaborates with the nuclear facility to plan the project scope, timeline, and specific actions.
• Data Gathering: Conducted by a third-party contracted by the consulting teams, this phase includes extensive data collection methods such as laser scanning, point clouds, LiDAR, 3D mapping, heat mapping, and dosimetry.
• Digital Tool Provision: Companies provide digital asset-management solutions that require licensing.
• Adjacent Digital Tool Provision: Often a niche company offers a specific piece of software or technology to integrate with the main asset management solution.

Insights and Strategic Impact: The study’s insights have been instrumental in shaping strategic decisions, highlighting the critical role of digital technologies in enhancing process efficiency and regulatory compliance within the nuclear decommissioning sector. These insights guide the enhancement of service offerings and the formation of strategic partnerships, establishing a foundation for leadership in digital transformation.

 

Complexities and Decision Making in Specific Markets:

The digital asset management sector’s complexity means that implementing solutions is a significant decision, not taken lightly, especially in countries like Germany where the entire nuclear sector is in a decommissioning phase. Despite the potential for significant cost reductions with technologies like BIM, there is often hesitation to invest in such expensive technologies for projects nearing termination. The British government has endeavored to integrate BIM into legislation for all government-funded construction-related projects.

His Majesty’s Government estimates that the potential savings from implementing digital asset management tools in nuclear decommissioning could be up to 20%, translating to up to 800 million pounds sterling. However, the limited budget allocation of just 2.2% from the NDA’s total critical enabler expenditure of 185 million pounds sterling for digital asset management related projects reflects a cautious approach to such significant investment decisions.

So, what are sectorial entities scared off?

Well according to Damona’s internal studies most of the actors of the sector are afraid of 3 main things, the first one is security concerns announced to be an issue in more than 70% of cases, following come integrating systems with ongoing operations and budget constraints with 50% cases declaring these points problematic for the integration of digital asset management tools.

 

Damona’s Conclusive Insights:

Overall, digital transformation and asset management tools for the nuclear industry are bound to be integrated into the everyday frameworks to reduce the costs of commissioning, maintenance, decommissioning, and generally throughout the whole life cycle of physical assets in the industry. However, the industry needs more convincing, with concerns related to a dead-end investment once decommissioning has ended, and other concerns such as cybersecurity or the effect the integration of such tools could have on ongoing projects.

 

Uncovering complex paterns,analysis and sizing of niche markets  is part of the key capabilities at Damona, do not hesitate to check out what we do and contact us to discuss your potential challenges.