Competitiveness Accepted

Abstract

Orders for LWRs in the United States rose fast from 1965 to 1967, then fell steadily back in 1968–69 (almost to the 1965 figures) then from 1970 forged ahead again remarkably, reaching their highest in 1974, then dropped again very sharply in 1975. The trends are shown in Figure 3.1, which gives the aggregate capacity of both nuclear and fossil-fuelled plants ordered annually from 1963, together with the number and capacity of large nuclear plants which began operating. The total capacity ordered, fossil and nuclear, rose steeply from 1963 to 1967, a favourable market circumstance. The annual average of orders for all steam-generating plant from 1966 to 1970 was three times the average for 1961–65, and orders in 1967 alone were more than half the aggregate of orders placed in the ten years 1950/51 to 1959/60.