As I said in the immediately proceeding post, nuclear power faces a production choke point with the ultra large forgings required for a single piece reactor pressure vessel. The only company with a facility capable of creating these is Japan Steel Works located on the island of Hokkaido. According to this Bloomberg article, companies are putting down a 100 million dollar down payments for a production slot (one of four per year).
You would think that one of these old steel towns in the US might have a facility that could be converted. After all, it seems that supply is constrained enough that the price will remain high.
If I had a hundred million dollars.....
Some interesting links:
Technical article on Steel Forging techniques
Japan Steel Works fabrication process
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