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My company would be very surprized to hear that we can't build reactors in the US.

The Babcock & Wilcox Company

Commercial Nuclear Plant Components: Reactor Vessels - B&W

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You are what you learn.

can't ?!?!?!
did I just hear an American say can't?

when I could not find a set of speakers in my teenage years that i liked / could afford. I designed and built them myself.

When I could not find a cast bullet design I liked, I taught myself how to use a lathe and made the molds myself.

When I could not find a garage that remotely cared about the mechanical solidity of my car, I overhauled it myself.

When i got used to the idea of doing it all myself, I designed and built my guitar amp for the inner peace of doing it myself.

Am I in the wrong country?
what's this Can't business?

We can, "they" wont let us.

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Stay safe people!

I'm apt to believe this, actually.

We're losing the "we can do it ourselves" American spirit. People are getting terrible at doing things with their own two hands...

I saw a report on TV that most of the wind mills for electric power production were being made in China

I think your friends are referring to the reactor vessels. The US no longer has the capability to forge the vessels.
us cedes capability for largest nuclear forgings

Why would we? Forging and casting capability is like anything else; use it or lose it.

By the way, many of our nuclear engineers from the plant building end, not the operational end, are retired and aging fast.

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Ipsis Rebus Dictantitbus

The technology of Westinghouse Nuclear Power Plants is the basis for nearly 50 percent of the world's operating commercial nuclear power plants. The projects of Nuclear Power Plants are varied yet innovative, with customer-driven design and cost-efficient performance.

Nuclear Power Plants specializes in two major product lines:

New Nuclear Power Plants
Nuclear Power Plants provides the development and startup for new units worldwide. It is a leader in the design of advanced pressurized water reactor (PWR) systems. Exploring new technologies for tomorrow's energy markets, Nuclear Power Plants is working with the U.S. government to enable the capital costs of new plants to be more competitive in the energy marketplace.

Component Manufacturing
Nuclear Power Plants manufactures precision stainless steel components including reactor vessel internals, reactor coolant pumps, and control element drive mechanisms.

Just as another comment; foundries and forges, transformer building and the like tend to be large, noisy, dirty, hazardous, etc. The EPA, OSHA, and other parts of the Federal and State government tell you how, when, and where.........then the AFL-CIO tells you even more....................so the answer becomes anywhere but in the US.

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Ipsis Rebus Dictantitbus

westinghouse nuclear=toshiba

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Ipsis Rebus Dictantitbus

Don't forget the worst acronym of all: NIMBY's.

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I mean, you feel me....

Gael: Right you are, who wants the stinky factory in our neighborhood, town, county, state (well, maybe way up state).
So away goes the jobs and the capability, and the capital investment.
I left out another factor TAX. So if they insist on building, tax them, then tax them some more.
To quote the current POTUS, they can build a Coal Fired Generating Plant, but we will bankrupt them.

I think a lot of us would like a nice very large scale forge/foundry/fab shop in our backyard.
But then, those who would are not very elite or progressive.

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Ipsis Rebus Dictantitbus

You are the paleo-American. Can't is the neo-American. Usually coupled with apologies for what the paleos did (including their first lesson for the Japanese on the topic of nuclear energy).

There's a better one: BANANA.

Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything



A personal favorite.

Who is building the units for our nuclear navy?

When I was in high school, one of my summer jobs was working at Brown Boveri, now Asa Brown Boveri, a Swiss company that built several nuclear power plants in the US in the late 70s.

ABB sold the nuclear power plant business to BNFL, which also purchased Westinghouse Electric Company among other companies. Then BNFL sold off its various power companies and Westinghouse was bought by Toshiba.

Right now it seems as if there are at least 6 reactors on order, awaiting funding and the go-ahead to build new nuclear power plants in the US.

The process for constructing a nuclear power station today is pretty much the same as it was in the 60s or seventies. Lots of reinforced concrete buildings and welded piping systems and electric cable runs. The only real difference this time around is that some of the biggest components such as reactor vessels and steam generators will be fabricated elsewhere until we regain that capability that we abandoned when we stopped building plants.

part of the problem lies with us as well.
few have heard of part numbers MJ15003 and MJ15004.
A quick web search will show these are a complimentary pair of transistors.
even fewer will know what to do with them.
even the electronics engineers behind most of the A/V products we see today barely know what to do with them and turn to integrated circuits as a pre packaged means of driving a set of speakers.

a properly designed discrete component amp will rule over any IC since it does not have the space and substrate limitations of an IC.

if we dont know how to do any of this stuff, we certainly cannot build any of it, leave alone take it to production and market it.

the same principal goes for just about any product be it a nuclear power plant or the mutant guitar stack you plug into it.

We desperately need to relearn this stuff

If you were to successfully ban guns, after a while no one would be able to shoot.

Similarly, if Nuclear Plant Construction or any other industry/trade is no longer allowed, soon you will forget how to build. Thirty years is a long time.
We should be building about 20 units a year, where would the design, engineering, & skilled construction people come from, France, China, Japan?
We have a great group of Nuclear Plant operators, but sadly have let the lead in plant building and design slip away.

With the environmentalists, in charge I greatly fear we will never build another Nuclear Generating Plant in this country. Remember, even with the loans announced today, it is just the beginning of a seven year permitting process which by design is very easy to derail.

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Ipsis Rebus Dictantitbus

My close friend is a Nuclear Engineer who designed and built Nuclear Power Plants in the 70s in Texas, he left that field and went to NASA as a Nuclear Proplusion Specialist and has just retired.

He says the same thing about not being able to build them in the USofA. He says they will have to import from Japan or France.

Rule 303

America can't build a toaster anymore (When's the last time you saw a toaster say "Made in USA?") much less a Nuke plant. Kids can't convert 1/4 to a decimal and they're going to build a reactor? Of course we could get some Chinese engineers and some Mexican block masons and some....... Joe

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Wisdom chases me; I'm faster

By the time the tree huggers get through suing, protesting, and using their political clout, Georgia will probably get a windmill farm instead of the nuclear plants they need.

Business Units: B&W Nuclear Operations Group - B&W

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You are what you learn.

We seem to be able to build them where I live. Watts Bar #1 was cranked up in 1996. #2 is in the process of being built and scheduled for completion around 2013. What's the problemo?

Yeah, but all the stuff for Watts Bar has been sitting in warehouses for lo, many moons. It certainly wasn't built recently.

The original nuke plants were all custom designed. The last few Westinghouse ones were standardized designs, the Standard Nuclear Utility Power Plant (SNUPP). And those got delayed, first by changes resulting from TMI, then to cover worries about seizmic events (earthquakes).

There was a recent thread on another site about large power transformers. When I worked for Westinghouse 20+ years ago, there were 7-9 companies that built those things in the US. Due to electric supply being a "mature industry", there was considerable consolidation due to shrinking markets. Now there's probably less than 7 manufacturers in the free world. The lead time on those things have always been measured in years. They don't look terribly complex, but they are.

Ah yes, but never let the truth get in the way of a good story. 25 years in the making

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sourc..._G-QP0Pl4SF1wA


http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sourc...PZeY9FT05Dwc2g

Well, I'm glad we got ours and have another in the works. I guess I'll support Cap and Trade and make the rest of ya coal and oil burnin' suffer the cost..... just kidding.

Large American engineering companies still build most of the worlds mega projects. I suspect that they will be at the forefront of the upcoming nuclear surge. Engineering prowess is one area where we have not lost our edge.

We didn't lose our edge. We gave it away!

If you check the list you will find many applications under review.
We have what amounts to a second unit of an existing plant “under review” near here. The greenies have already managed to block rail access to the site, and a group of professors from the U of F have flatly stated that the plant will not be built.
The application system has been designed to allow “adversely affected persons” to delay approval essentially forever.

A Federal Register notice describing this Order and how persons adversely affected by the Order can request a hearing can be found at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-15796.pdf.

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Ipsis Rebus Dictantitbus