Sumitomo Announces Program to Triple Production for Steam Generator Tubes for Nuclear Reactors.

[NNadir]

Sumitomo Metal Industries of Japan has announced a project to almost triple its production capacity at its Amagasaki plant for steel steam generator (SG) tubes for use in pressurized water reactors. The two other manufacturers of such tubing announced capacity increases last year.

The vast Amagasaki site (Image: Sumitomo Metals)
The company will invest some 14 billion yen ($150 million) to increase capacity at its Steel Tube Works in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, by some 2.7 times its actual production in fiscal 2008. The major areas of capacity expansion will include a cold working facility, a finishing facility and an inspection facility. Increased production is scheduled to start in April 2013.

The company claims that it has been receiving the bulk of orders for steam generator tubes to be used in third generation nuclear power plants, including those for two Westinghouse AP1000 units planned at the Vogtle site in Georgia, USA. Sumitomo Metals said, "We expect to continue receiving orders from the USA, China, South Korea and other countries for SG tubes to be manufactured in and after 2013, as our production schedule is tight up to 2012..."

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/C-Sumitomo_Metals_boosts_tube_output-1204105.html">Sumitomo Metals boosts tube output.

Recently I posted news about new forging capacity in Britain to make reactor cores.

Apparently the 1980 memo from genius Amory Lovins announcing that nuclear power is dead has still not made it to Britain or to Japan.