GE-Hitachi to Purchase Components in Nuclear Grade Forge in India.

[NNadir]

It would seem that India has something on its mind other than reading Mark Z. Jacobson's paper over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over...

According to an article in the The Hindu GE-Hitachi plans to buy nuclear forgings from L&T's Indian forges.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/02/04/stories/2010020452220200.htm">GE-Hitachi Nuclear ready to use L&T forgings.

excerpts from articles)

New Delhi, Feb. 3

GE-Hitachi Nuclear plans to source special steels and forgings from Larsen & Toubro's (L&T) new integrated forging facility coming up in Hazira. “If they (L&T) build it, we will use it… It can be part of our supply chain for India and other markets,” Mr Jack Fuller, President and CEO of GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy, told Business Line.

L&T, in a joint venture with Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL), will be setting up the fully integrated facility in Gujarat, which would significantly augment India's capabilities in manufacturing critical components for the nuclear power industry.

Currently, countries setting up nuclear power capacities are faced with a big crunch in sourcing critical components, particularly the large forgings used for reactor vessels and steam systems.

Reactor manufacturers mainly line up at two foundries — Japan Steel Works and French nuclear major Areva's group firm Creusot Forge — for main reactor vessels and related equipment.

The Russian atomic energy industry has its own forging facilities.

GE-Hitachi, along with the Toshiba-Westinghouse Electric combine, is in the reckoning for reactor orders for upcoming projects in India and two greenfield sites have been earmarked for reactor units supplied by the two US vendors.

Mr Fuller said that GE will not have an exclusivity pact for the use of L&T's upcoming facility, which means the forging unit can deliver equipment to other reactor manufacturers, including Toshiba-Westinghouse. Reactor manufacturers also stand to reduce costs considerably by making critical components such as reactor castings, forgings and piping domestically.

L&T's forging unit will have a dedicated steel melt shop producing ingots weighing up to 600 tonnes each, and a heavy forge shop equipped with a forging press which will be amongst the largest in the world.

[Statistical]

1. Man lots of activity all over the world for this "dead technology".

Almost like people are building a lot of reactors (55 currently under construction) and planning even more (97 reactors in planning).

[NNadir]

2. Don't be ridiculous. Nuclear power is dead. Amory Lovins said so and Mark Z. Jacobson said so

too.

Those reactors are imaginary, and, um, http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/international/iealf/table27.xls">2,594.53 is less than 684.38 and http://www.energy.eu/#gas-electricity">0.1319 is grather than .2671.

Also the Saturnian moon Titan is actually tropical, Neptune is the same size as Venus, and bacteria are actually highly intelligent beings with advanced nervous systems.

[joshcryer]

3. I'm just glad we have options for carbon free energy.

97 new nuclear reactors is promising, but to be honest we need tenfold that to even have a hope of getting ourselves out of this mess.

[Statistical]

4. I doubt we will ever see that many nuclear reactors.

Nuclear will only be part of the solution. This is why I am not anti wind. Yeah it is variable, yeah there is very little data on long term lifespans but it is the best complement to nuclear power. I really hope for a breakthrough in solar but that so far has been elusive (full disclosure the only energy stock I own is FSLR).

Doubling nuclear fleet is likely the upper limit of what we can achieve with nuclear without some sort of emergency international push (single design, socialized power industry, etc).

So that means 30-35% of global power at max. Since power demand will grow over next two decades it is more like 25%.

As time goes on I get somewhat more pessimistic. Wind lobby best projections for a decade from now is 8% wind power. Say they double that for next decade = 16%.

2030
25% nuclear
16% wind
20% hydro

that is still a lot of fossil fuels being burned. If we had made this push 20 years ago that likely would be good but we are a car going 100 mph towards a brick wall. 60% emission free power is like hitting breaks and only going 50mph. Still looks like we are going to hit the wall.

[Heywood J]

5. It's quite sad that we lost the ability to create these here.

Nuclear pressure vessels aside, that means we're dependent on Japan, China, and India for essential steel works. I wonder how much longer it might take to be unable to produce steel for bridges and buildings domestically, without having to import raw or finished materials.

[Statistical]

6. Industry in Japan (and France) knows that their investments will be protected.

A company in Japan that spends hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade their foundry has reasonable assurance that the govt won't try to block/stall/abandon nuclear energy leaving them with a worthless cap-ex project.

Same thing applies in France, Korea, Russia, and India. Companies are more likely to invest in massive capital expenditures (that take years to recoup) when risk of being abandoned is at least somewhat mitigated.

The US govt essentially abandoned the nuclear industry in late 70s to unfounded public opinion. The utilities (mostly) survived because the majority of reactors had already been built. The support industries died on the vine.

At one time we had 5 major nuclear companies. 2 are gone. Of the two remaining, Westinghouse only survived because Toshiba bought them. That is some long-term thinking there, Toshiba got Westinghouse for next to nothing). The final player, GE survived because it is diversified. B&W survived by relying on its boiler technology (and the massive increase in coal boilers).

So is it any surprise that the support industries are now mostly located in France, Japan, Korea, and Russia?