http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11079/1133331-28.stmWestinghouse tries to avoid nuclear fallout
Sunday, March 20, 2011
By Erich Schwartzel, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The nuclear industry has always specialized in the "What ifs?" that no one wants to think about: terrorist attacks, computer crashes, earthquakes.
The force of Japan's largest earthquake in decades has turned the hypothetical into an unfolding reality, forcing a nuclear industry banking on a lucrative future to grapple with a new what if: What if this sets us back another 30 years?
That's the question being asked at Westinghouse Electric, the Cranberry-based company that planned for a 2011 busy with site construction of its AP1000 reactors in the United States and abroad as nations look for cleaner sources of energy. The calamity at Japan's crippled nuclear reactors, the inability of engineers to control the disaster and the subsequent calls for moratoriums on nuclear plant construction have forced Westinghouse to take on a public relations disaster, construction delays and possible new regulations.
First things first: Did we mention those reactors in Japan were designed by General Electric?
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