Tooling & Production - March/April 2009 - (Page 18) cover story • industry revival Changing directions and attitudes from one era to another sometimes seems like trying to push an aircraft carrier. The same holds true in industry. Nevertheless, the manufacturing sector’s inherent strengths, once summoned and focused, can result in mass production in a short span of time. Already, the first wave of breakthroughs have hit to prepare for the coming nuclear era. In Louisiana, the Shaw Group and Westinghouse teamed up with Gov. Bobby Jindal’s office to build a 600,000sqft facility near the gulf coast, at the port of Lake Charles. The fabrication plant is larger than 10 football fields and will manufacture components for new reactors in the United States. Projected to open in mid-2009, the facility will make “modules” for a new Westinghouse reactor design aimed at lowering the cost to build new units. Meanwhile, Babcock &Wilcox is setting up a plant in Mount Vernon, IN, to resume manufacturing reactor vessels and other big components, while Areva and Northrop Grumman are moving ahead with their partnership in Newport News, VA. What’s been missing though from nuclear energy’s resurgence is Washington muscle. Lobbyists have for years been working hard to ramp up the order flow, pushing for legislation that would open foreign markets to U.S. manufacturers, and begging for someone to stand up on the national stage and articulate a national goal of, say, 30 new plants in the next 30 years. With the domestic nuclear industry down to a minimum of suppliers for every major type of component, the industry is asking for tax credits to train new workers and tax incentives on capital improvements. For now, manufacturers are waiting to see which nuclear plans now under review at the NRC ultimately receive licensing and financing approval. Those decisions are becoming ever more muddied by the current economic crisis. “After the first couple [plans] get further down the line, I believe you’ll see a lot more activity on the supply chain,” said B&W’s Reimels. “But I think it’s going to be a big struggle to get up and running. “To get a facility, like we have in Mount Vernon — which is being built from scratch — it’s probably four to five years from the time that you make a decision, commit the money, and actually get a product out the other end of the facility,” he said. “If you look at the schedules of these plants, it’s going to be pretty hard.” Babcock & Wilcox, www.rsleads. com/903tp-164; Northrop Grumman Corp., www.rsleads.com/903tp-165; Westinghouse, www.rsleads.com/ 903tp-166; Teledyne Brown Engineering, www.rsleads.com/903tp-167; Areva, www.rsleads.com/903tp-168; Nuclear Energy Institute, www.rsleads.com/ 903tp-169; Edison Welding Institute, www.rsleads.com/903tp-170; National Association of Manufacturers, www. rsleads.com/903tp-171 www.ToolingAndProduction.com POWER PLANTS would require a range of custom parts, from steam generators to valves to pressure vessels, all engineered to extremely precise industry standards. The metallic containment liner double-ring container liner is lifted at the EPR construction site in Olkiluoto, Finland. 18 tooling& production March/April 2009 http://www.rsleads.com/903tp-164 http://www.rsleads.com/903tp-164 http://www.rsleads.com/903tp-165 http://www.rsleads.com/903tp-166 http://www.rsleads.com/903tp-166 http://www.rsleads.com/903tp-167 http://www.rsleads.com/903tp-168 http://www.rsleads.com/cgi-bin/rservice/redirect_2.asp?ID=903tp-169 http://www.rsleads.com/cgi-bin/rservice/redirect_2.asp?ID=903tp-169 http://www.rsleads.com/903tp-170 http://www.rsleads.com/903tp-171 http://www.rsleads.com/903tp-171 http://www.ToolingAndProduction.com
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