Based on the article given, answer the following questions: 1. What went wrong at B&W? How management errors in judgment cause all the problems?

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THE GREAT NUCLEAR FIZZLE AT OLD B & W
EVERYTHING WENT WRONG WHEN THE VENERABLE BOILERMAKERS TURNED TO
BUILDING PRESURE VESSELS FOR ATOMIC REACTORS. THE WHOLE ELECTRIC-POWER
INDUSTRY FELT THE CONSEQUENCES.
The long awaited transition of the US electric-power industry into the nuclear age has
been slowed by a number of factors, including technological difficulties and public
resistance. But a specific and unexpected cause for delay has been one company's
crucial failure to deliver a single vital component of nuclear power plants. The failure,
basically, was a management failure and on a scale that would be cause for concern
even in a fly-by-night newcomer to the nuclear industry. The company, however, was
no newcomer. It was proud old Babcock & Wilcox Co., a pioneer of the steam
generating business whose boilers were used in one of the first central power plants
ever built (in Philadelphia in 1881). Babcock & Wilcox had an impressive $648 million
in sales in 1968, making it 157th on FORTUNE's list or 500 largest industrials, and it
has been engaged in nuclear work in a major way for fifteen years, producing, among
other things, atomic power systems for US Navy submarines.
Moreover, the corporation is one of only five that are engaged in building nuclear
power plants in the U.S. With consumption of electricity growing by nearly 10 percent
a year, the utilities are counting heavily on the new nuclear stations to avoid
brownouts and power failures in the years ahead. Poor performance at Babcock &
Wilcox is thus one of those problems that could send ripples through the whole
economy
Based on the article given, answer the following questions:
1. What went wrong at B&W? How management errors in judgment cause all
the problems?
Transcribed Image Text:THE GREAT NUCLEAR FIZZLE AT OLD B & W EVERYTHING WENT WRONG WHEN THE VENERABLE BOILERMAKERS TURNED TO BUILDING PRESURE VESSELS FOR ATOMIC REACTORS. THE WHOLE ELECTRIC-POWER INDUSTRY FELT THE CONSEQUENCES. The long awaited transition of the US electric-power industry into the nuclear age has been slowed by a number of factors, including technological difficulties and public resistance. But a specific and unexpected cause for delay has been one company's crucial failure to deliver a single vital component of nuclear power plants. The failure, basically, was a management failure and on a scale that would be cause for concern even in a fly-by-night newcomer to the nuclear industry. The company, however, was no newcomer. It was proud old Babcock & Wilcox Co., a pioneer of the steam generating business whose boilers were used in one of the first central power plants ever built (in Philadelphia in 1881). Babcock & Wilcox had an impressive $648 million in sales in 1968, making it 157th on FORTUNE's list or 500 largest industrials, and it has been engaged in nuclear work in a major way for fifteen years, producing, among other things, atomic power systems for US Navy submarines. Moreover, the corporation is one of only five that are engaged in building nuclear power plants in the U.S. With consumption of electricity growing by nearly 10 percent a year, the utilities are counting heavily on the new nuclear stations to avoid brownouts and power failures in the years ahead. Poor performance at Babcock & Wilcox is thus one of those problems that could send ripples through the whole economy Based on the article given, answer the following questions: 1. What went wrong at B&W? How management errors in judgment cause all the problems?
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