Technology development brings sub-majors to N-power construction

In the past, the construction works of almost all reactor buildings were carried out by big five companies, but as the number of joint venture projects increased, the way opened for submajor firms to participate in the construction of main nuclear buildings. When the five major companies alone engaged in the construction of nuclear plant buildings, three submajor firms did most of the civil engineering works needed. The civil engineering works have been carried out also as joint venture. In order to break through the big five barrier, submajor companies have been engaged in the independent and joint development of nuclear-related design and construction techniques, and the gap with major companies has been closing. The typical joint study done by seven submajor companies was on the load-deflection characteristics of building structures. Also they engaged in aseismatic studies. The method of stripping the contaminated surface layer of shielding concrete is a new technique studied by JAERI. The activities of eleven submajor companies are reported. (Kako, I.)