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Shake-Out. Uranium miners were not the only ones in trouble last week. The problems of developing atomic power are so great that the manufacturers of reactors now face the same kind of industry-wide shake-out that uranium miners are going through. Many small manufacturers are cutting back their plans for breaking into the reactor business. Bell Aircraft Corp. recently laid off 29 of its 30 atomic engineers. Like several other companies, it has decided to make reactor components instead of whole reactors. Even some of the giants are beginning to take a critical second look.
A major problem is that the construction of complex nuclear plants is proving far more expensive than originally thought. On a big nuclear power plant that Consolidated Edison is building north of New York, cost estimates have jumped from $55 million to $90 million. At the nation's first major nuclear power plant, which is scheduled to start operating at Shippingport, Pa. before year's end, Westinghouse has spent 80¢ on research and development for every $1 spent on construction of the reactor portion.
A more basic problem is that the commercial market is far too small to support the many companies that have bounded into it. While six big companies supply almost all the equipment for the $1.5 billion-a-year conventional power market, 50 to 60 firms plan to make reactor equipment. AEC expects few of them to survive. Said the commission's Reactor Development Director W. Kenneth Davis: "During the next few years the business will not support 50 companies or even a fraction of them. We could have a few good companies or a lot of mediocre or bad ones. I favor a few good ones."