Supply Chain Gang: Nuclear Industry Joins the Club (WSJ)

[jpak]

http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2008/04/11/supply-chain-gang-nuclear-industry-joins-the-club/?mod=WSJBlog

For all the talk about the nuclear renaissance in the U.S., the industry needs to focus on the nuts and bolts—literally.

Rebecca Smith reports today in the WSJ (sub reqd.) on a new hurdle for the U.S. nuclear-power sector: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission warned this week that some parts used in reactors are defective or counterfeit. While no parts caused any accidents, many have been recalled.

What’s behind the supply-chain hiccups? Basically, the shrinkage of the domestic nuclear industry after it went walkabout in the late 1970s, the paper says. To fill the gap, foreign or inexperienced firms have started making small but critical components for reactors. Says the WSJ:

NRC Chairman Dale Klein has expressed concern about the supply chain, noting that 1,350 American companies were members of the American Nuclear Society, the key professional association for the industry, in 1977. Today, there are only about 700, and many of them are foreign owned. “This dramatic decline in the domestic supply chain is clearly having an effect,” said Mr. Klein. “The global supply chain is stretched, if not to the breaking point, at least to the tipping point.”

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