Key Issues

Expanded Manufacturing Capacity Needed to Support New Nuclear Plant Construction

<< Previous

Recommendations for Mitigating Potential Constraints
Based on the results of the infrastructure survey, NEI developed recommendations for the nuclear energy indus-try, manufacturers and policymakers to mitigate these potential shortfalls. These recommendations are:
  • Nuclear plant designers should communicate often with architectural, engineering and manufacturing firms on forecasted project schedules for nuclear components. This will facilitate a continuous evaluation of the manufacturing capacity for nuclear components.
  • Design, architect/ engineering, construction and manufacturing companies should cooperate to solve common supply-chain issues that may pose construction challenges, including processing raw materials and limited subcomponent supply.
  • Electric companies should interact with the manufacturing industry to broaden understanding of the number of new-plant components and their quality requirements.
  • The energy industry should pursue aggressive outreach to encourage communication among electric companies, reactor designers, vendors and equipment manufacturers.
  • The nuclear industry should assess the commodity markets to better understand the impact of raw material sup-plies on the manufacturing of nuclear plant components and on construction. Sound mitigating strategies must be developed.

Building Momentum for New Nuclear Plants
As the need for new nuclear power plants increases, the demand for nuclear components will place an additional burden on a limited number of suppliers. The ability to accurately define equipment requirements and assess overall manufacturing capacities will become even more critical to avoiding supply shortages and delays in production and deployment.

Pages 1 2 3 4 5
E-mail link to a friend
Sending email