Reactor shortage to sour India's nuclear dream

[phantom power]

Another headline I don't especially like, but copyright rules, etc etc.

In the 1980s, there were about 400 nuclear suppliers and 900 nuclear-certified companies in the US. These have shrunk to fewer than 80 suppliers and 200 certifications.

(...)

At present, countries investing in nuclear power programmes, except Russia, have to queue up at one foundry — Japan Steel Works (JSW) — to place orders for their main reactor pressure vessel and its allied equipment. The vessel encloses the radioactive uranium fuel and the nuclear reactions happen inside it.

(...)

“The supply challenge is not confined to the heavy forgings for reactor pressure vessels, steam turbines and generators. It extends to most engineered components and with escalating steel and energy prices there is a flow-on to plant costs,” said Jeremy Gordon, Writer and Analyst, World Nuclear Association, when contacted by Business Standard.

(...)

They said even projects underway now are plagued by incessant engineering and financial delays. This was reaffirmed by Moody’s in a report dated October 2007. It concluded that it believed many of the current expectations for nuclear were “overly ambitious”, due to everything from lack of materials, manpower and poor credit ratings of power utilities.

http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=336386