<story><title>Westinghouse Files for Bankruptcy, in Blow to Nuclear Power</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/29/business/westinghouse-toshiba-nuclear-bankruptcy.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>killjoywashere</author><text>The real concern here is making sure the existing nuclear plants have a clear glide slope toward end-of-life. Nuclear power is an extremely tight community. On the nuclear carrier I was on (powered by Westinghouse plants), there was a valve (a valve!) malfunctioning and the tech rep flown out from the company took one look at it and said &amp;quot;This bit&amp;#x27;s in backward&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;How do you know?&amp;quot; &amp;quot;I designed it&amp;quot;. Which means the same guy had been working on that system for 30 years.&lt;p&gt;The people working for this company are a matter of national security. I sure hope Secretary Mattis understands that.&lt;p&gt;This, also, by the way, is a great illustration of Elon Musk&amp;#x27;s contention that these technologies don&amp;#x27;t just keep working. Brilliant, competent engineers and scientists have to invest themselves in making them work.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>badloginagain</author><text>Living in a world where technology seems outdated after 3-4 years, having reactors reliably serving up power for several &lt;i&gt;decades&lt;/i&gt; is kind of amazing.&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, this does keep the number of people in the industry small. Sure, demonization of the power source, and regulatory standards that inhibit the development of new technologies also help, but it seems like this would be a problem regardless.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve always wondered what the demand&amp;#x2F;pay is for engineers looking to enter the nuclear industry is like.</text></comment>
<story><title>Westinghouse Files for Bankruptcy, in Blow to Nuclear Power</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/29/business/westinghouse-toshiba-nuclear-bankruptcy.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>killjoywashere</author><text>The real concern here is making sure the existing nuclear plants have a clear glide slope toward end-of-life. Nuclear power is an extremely tight community. On the nuclear carrier I was on (powered by Westinghouse plants), there was a valve (a valve!) malfunctioning and the tech rep flown out from the company took one look at it and said &amp;quot;This bit&amp;#x27;s in backward&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;How do you know?&amp;quot; &amp;quot;I designed it&amp;quot;. Which means the same guy had been working on that system for 30 years.&lt;p&gt;The people working for this company are a matter of national security. I sure hope Secretary Mattis understands that.&lt;p&gt;This, also, by the way, is a great illustration of Elon Musk&amp;#x27;s contention that these technologies don&amp;#x27;t just keep working. Brilliant, competent engineers and scientists have to invest themselves in making them work.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>LordKano</author><text>Last year, I interviewed with one of the companies that was born by Westinghouse shedding units a couple of decades ago and they still do this kind of thing.&lt;p&gt;If a Naval unit has an issue, they&amp;#x27;ll attempt to reproduce it and develop a solution at a remote location. If they can&amp;#x27;t, they&amp;#x27;ll send an engineer across the planet to evaluate and fix it.&lt;p&gt;They do this even for not &amp;quot;critical&amp;quot; systems. I was impressed at that level of dedication.&lt;p&gt;It was this part that made me re-think whether or not I wanted the position. I wasn&amp;#x27;t ready to commit to being available to travel to the other side of the planet at a moment&amp;#x27;s notice if&amp;#x2F;when something goes wrong but I do appreciate the commitment.&lt;p&gt;The current rush to the bottom school of thought in cost-saving will have a serious detrimental effect on our military prowess. Sure, some people think that&amp;#x27;s a good thing but I do not.</text></comment>