GE
What was stated above is what I have also found from my researach on GE. They have committed support to currently operating Nuclear plants. However,ome new GE plants, from I hear, will be built in Japan using GE's new Advanced Boiling Water Reactor System. They are actively marketing this design in Europe and Asian markets. GE does the design but not the manufacturing. It's a great system..core meltdowns are virtually impossible due to new high temperature ceramic materials and a natural flow emergency core cooling system which will work automatically under no human supervision and no power (e.g. no pumps required). It's a unique system that relies only on natural convection to keep the core cool. The ceramic fuel rods have a higher melting point than the temperatures produced during the fission process. The engineers call it "walk-away" safe. If you have a reactor trip and loose all power to the back up systems you can go home and have lunch and talk about how to fix it. No worries about a melt down or vessel breach. Unfortunately there is still remains somewhat of a anti-nuclear mind set in the U.S. It's not as prevalent as it may appear, it's just that the antinuclear population is so very vocal.
I've noticed my students at the university are very neutral to nuclear power and seem very responsive and postive to my lectures on it. This gives me hope that one day attitudes may change. GE's purchasing of the wind power business was a step in the right direction. But wind power can never be used universally, like nuclear. Yo need near steady winds and it's very land intensive. As mentioned above, it is a great supplemental source of power that can augment other base electrical sources.
BTW, Welch does not have a speech impediment, at least not a physical one (I wouldn't make fun of this for anyone). It's more of a psychological thing with him. When he gets mad at his underlings, he looses control, gets red in the face and screams (literally) he gets to the point where he is so mad he can't speak and his words come out in stutters. It's at this point you know "Neutron Jack" will strike and you'd better be finding new employment.
Anyway, back to appliances. Should GE stay in the appliance industry, I think we will see more outsourcing and purchasing of products from other companies to help ease them out of the actual Manufacturing end. They have closed down many building at their Louisville planat and have only a fraction of the employees they did during their peak in the 1970's. They stopped production of disposals and compactors several years ago. They contract Whirlpool to make their compactors and Annaheim Manufacturing (Sinkmaster) produces their disposal line. Their refrigerator compressors were being imported from Japan, the last I heard,since Welch botched up their new rotary compressor by introducing it before long term relaibility studies had been completed.
What was stated above is what I have also found from my researach on GE. They have committed support to currently operating Nuclear plants. However,ome new GE plants, from I hear, will be built in Japan using GE's new Advanced Boiling Water Reactor System. They are actively marketing this design in Europe and Asian markets. GE does the design but not the manufacturing. It's a great system..core meltdowns are virtually impossible due to new high temperature ceramic materials and a natural flow emergency core cooling system which will work automatically under no human supervision and no power (e.g. no pumps required). It's a unique system that relies only on natural convection to keep the core cool. The ceramic fuel rods have a higher melting point than the temperatures produced during the fission process. The engineers call it "walk-away" safe. If you have a reactor trip and loose all power to the back up systems you can go home and have lunch and talk about how to fix it. No worries about a melt down or vessel breach. Unfortunately there is still remains somewhat of a anti-nuclear mind set in the U.S. It's not as prevalent as it may appear, it's just that the antinuclear population is so very vocal.
I've noticed my students at the university are very neutral to nuclear power and seem very responsive and postive to my lectures on it. This gives me hope that one day attitudes may change. GE's purchasing of the wind power business was a step in the right direction. But wind power can never be used universally, like nuclear. Yo need near steady winds and it's very land intensive. As mentioned above, it is a great supplemental source of power that can augment other base electrical sources.
BTW, Welch does not have a speech impediment, at least not a physical one (I wouldn't make fun of this for anyone). It's more of a psychological thing with him. When he gets mad at his underlings, he looses control, gets red in the face and screams (literally) he gets to the point where he is so mad he can't speak and his words come out in stutters. It's at this point you know "Neutron Jack" will strike and you'd better be finding new employment.
Anyway, back to appliances. Should GE stay in the appliance industry, I think we will see more outsourcing and purchasing of products from other companies to help ease them out of the actual Manufacturing end. They have closed down many building at their Louisville planat and have only a fraction of the employees they did during their peak in the 1970's. They stopped production of disposals and compactors several years ago. They contract Whirlpool to make their compactors and Annaheim Manufacturing (Sinkmaster) produces their disposal line. Their refrigerator compressors were being imported from Japan, the last I heard,since Welch botched up their new rotary compressor by introducing it before long term relaibility studies had been completed.
