Trust, repetition, and shared responsibility—core to both golf and nuclear collaboration—can drive stronger partnerships, improve performance, and ensure long-term success in global clean energy development.
Scenario:
- Four friends play golf every Saturday morning during the golfing season.
- They are members of the same country club.
- After the round, the four friends go into the clubhouse, have lunch, and have a few drinks.
- Someone has to sign the chit to charge a member’s account for the lunch and drinks.
- Each week, a different member of the foursome signs the chit.
Observations:
- Nowhere in the scenario do the friends look each week at who ate what for the main meal, who ordered appetizers (and, if they shared an appetizer, who ate more of it and who ate less of it), who ordered a dessert, how many drinks each member of the foursome had, or who ordered a more expensive drink.
Major Lesson:
- The four friends (emphasis on FRIENDS) play golf every week. The chit rotates. In the long run (yes, we’re all dead anyway—thank you, John Maynard Keynes), it evens out among the four friends (emphasis again on FRIENDS).
So, for the love of God and all that is good on this Earth, what does any of this have to do with the global nuclear industry? Well, everything, of course.
Let’s take this in parts to extract a bit more from the golf scenario.
First: Friendship.
The scenario is about four friends. It is not about family members. So, by analogy, we are not talking about one country doing everything. We’re not talking about Korea, Inc., or Team USA. We’re talking about Team Allies and Friends.
What does this mean? It means collaboration to achieve a common goal. It means that trust has developed among parties, based on the strength of the relationship. The four friends know each other and can count on one another to make the weekly tee time on time.
The nuclear industry is a global industry. It is a global supply chain. If we are to have any chance of remotely approaching the 2050 Net Zero goal of tripling nuclear capacity, we must focus on what the collective “WE” can achieve, dividing and conquering with a “best in class” mentality. We aren’t equally good at the same things. Remember David Ricardo’s “comparative advantage” analysis; remember “mutual gains from voluntary exchange.”
Second: Repetition.
The four friends play golf every week. They establish patterns of behavior, have a comfort level of working together, and eat lunch after the round every week.
And then the bill comes. Yes, the bill is different every week…but the friends don’t fight over the weekly check. Why? … because they are friends. Why? … because it will even out over time.
So, in the concept of working together in the nuclear sector, if the focus is on one reactor or one project, human nature is to maximize one’s opportunity inside of that one deal … because that is the only deal. If I get more scope and you get less, then I win, and you lose. If there is just one plate of nachos in the clubhouse, and you missed breakfast, you try to get as many nachos as you can, and not the ones on the bottom that get soggy. It is all about zero-sum thinking. However, if we put a single deal in the context of the fleet-wide collaboration—multiple projects, decades of cooperation—the analysis changes. Human instinct now takes a long view, and behavior changes. Each deal will be different. The sharing relationship changes. And, by working together, project after project, more trust and familiarity are built, and performance keeps getting better.
Third: Sharing is Caring.
A famous phrase—also The Salvation Army’s old motto. Could sharing be the “salvation” for the nuclear industry?
As the nuclear industry advances into new technologies and jurisdictions, first-of-a-kind (FOAK) risks manifest in a number of ways. However, there is a tendency in the nuclear industry to make FOAK risk “someone else’s problem.” With that mentality, projects don’t happen, yet everyone hovers around the idea of a project without actually solving the problem.
Back on the golf course. One of the foursome is having a bad day—he either runs out of balls or tees. So, what do his buddies do? They reach into their golf bags and toss him a tee or a ball. At this point, someone reading this article might say, “Hey, collaborative contracting! Integrated Project Delivery” (IPD)! Is that the right answer in all cases? I’m honestly not sure. The facts of the project and the actual parties do matter. But even without going all the way to IPD in its purest sense of pain-share and gain-share, the concept of collaboration is essential, especially when it comes to problem-solving in project structuring and execution.
By the way, golf handicaps are there for a reason. When the members of the foursome have different abilities and want to compete (a few friendly wagers during the round), it serves nobody’s interest to beat down on the weakest member of the foursome, week after week. The weak link breaks, you lose a friend, and now you need a “fourth.” Golf handicaps equalize abilities. Governments can be the handicappers. Government support can facilitate deal formation, such as the intergovernmental agreements between the United States and Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria. It can also help progress project activities, such as the U.S. Trade and Development Agency’s early-stage funding in Poland and Romania and the U.S. Export-Import Bank’s Engineering Multiplier Program loan in Romania. And it can support new technologies coming to market, such as the U.S. Department of Energy’s support to X-energy and TerraPower under the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program.
Fourth: Every Lunch is Different.
No two projects are the same. Roles and responsibilities need to be adjusted accordingly. Scopes of work change. Risk management and mitigation strategies need to be adjusted. Just because something worked once doesn’t mean that it is the right fit in all cases. In short, adjust to the situation.
Fifth: Get to the Golf Course Early. Work Out the Kinks on the Practice Range and Practice Green.
If you play badly, your friends will make fun of you … as they should. If you don’t warm up, and you are slowing down the round, your friends will get frustrated … as they should. As the saying goes, “prior planning prevents poor performance.”
For the nuclear industry, cultivate relationships. Put in the work to create a fully integrated project. Get all the pieces right before pitching it to a client or a financier. For project delivery, that means technology (reactor design and supply chain), engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC), fuel, and operations (and maybe some financing, too), all woven together. Ultimately, most owners want a turnkey solution (note: not “lump sum turnkey,” just “turnkey”), especially with new technologies and emerging markets.
And, to be geopolitical for just a moment, that is what the Russians and Chinese are doing, so if our foursome is playing in a club tournament, it is no longer about their weekly routine because how the other foursomes in the tournament are scoring matters, too. So, on those days especially, get to the practice range and work on your short game, too, before stepping on the course.
Sixth: Who Made the Tee Time?
At the club, you don’t get to play when you want unless somebody makes the tee time. Usually, one member of the foursome is “the guy” … he’s the one who calls right when the window opens for the new week to get the desired tee time.
It is all well and good to talk about wanting to collaborate and the importance of collaboration, but guess what? You can talk about playing golf on Saturday, but someone needs to put in the effort to secure the tee time. If you play too late, it might be too hot or it might interfere with family plans later in the day. This is how divorces happen. An early tee time—a good tee time—means everyone wins. It’s not too hot, and you don’t have to rush the lunch, and everyone has a good time.
So, for the nuclear industry (and this goes for the constituent governments, too), someone needs to spend the time to figure all of this out—in essence, how do we actually collaborate?—because the details actually do matter. Strategies need to be built. Market assessments of real opportunities need to be done. Private and public efforts need to align to create and advance a fleet of projects. And, just like there is one guy in the foursome who is the best guy to make the tee time, not everyone is good at building out such strategies. And there needs to be a commitment to doing all of “this” in terms of both time and money. And … and … and! Remember, in a ham and egg breakfast, the chicken is involved, but the pig is committed. To create our nuclear foursome, the members of the foursome need to be committed.
What could collaboration look like? Here are just a few thoughts that necessitate further examination:
- Conducting global market assessments jointly, including ranking opportunities based on the likelihood of success.
- Pursuing joint opportunities—and adjusting those opportunities in terms of leadership, based on the party with the strongest relationship—and pursuing multiple opportunities at the same time.
- Forming joint ventures.
- Pooling resources across multiple projects.
- Pooling profits and losses across multiple projects (yes, this is a really long putt for par).
- Providing early-stage training and nuclear infrastructure development support in target countries, which is already being done under the FIRST program.
- Developing a complete nuclear power project offering, including reactor technology, project delivery (i.e., EPC), fuel, and operations.
- Developing the public-private partnership concept across national lines (i.e., two or more governments working together with their respective industries—a whole-of-government with whole-of-industry approach).
Seventh: Let’s Play Best Ball in the Club Tournament.
To close it all out, I will confess that I’m good off the tee box and on the green, but I’m horrible out of greenside bunkers. I love playing best ball in a foursome. It is more fun. It takes some of the pressure off. Everyone has a good time. And we play as a team. The best of days. I know what I’m good at, and I know where I’m challenged. Oh, and sometimes, you need to break up the foursome to compete, if the situation dictates … sometimes, to win, you need to create the dream team.
So, for the nuclear industry, self-awareness is a good thing. And the more self-aware we are, the more collaborative—and more successful—we can be.
Now, time to go make that tee time.
About the Author: Paul Murphy
Paul Murphy is the Founder and Managing Director of Murphy Energy & Infrastructure Consulting, LLC, where he advises on legal, policy, and financing strategies for nuclear power projects worldwide. Recognized as an expert by the IAEA, NEA, and the U.S. government, he has represented developers, investors, and contractors across the global nuclear industry and is an eight-time appointee to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce’s Civilian Nuclear Trade Advisory Committee.
Paul regularly teaches financing, contracting, project development, and risk allocation for the U.S. government, the IAEA, and Argonne National Laboratory’s international training programs. He has served as a guest lecturer at the U.S. National Defense University, Texas A&M, MIT, and Virginia Tech.
Image: Wlad74/Shutterstock
