On: BYU profs create new nuclear reactor to produce nu...

[richk449]

Is it really true that the forging of the pressure vessel is a significant portion of the billions of dollars it costs to build a nuclear power plant? As your link explains, there are plenty of forges capable of pressing the required ingot size - located in the places that have modern steel fabrication capability. The US doesn’t have these presses because the US doesn’t have modern steel plants - not because the presses are super rare.

[Manuel_D → richk449]

Furthermore, presses of this capacity aren't exactly cutting edge. The US built several on the 1950s: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_Press_Program

[bombcar → richk449]

And we built steel presses ages ago, I can’t believe we can’t build a new one if we really needed one.