Ideal combined cycle plants

The plant design would be based on production of many himdreds of essentially identical modules. Ideally, three or four major assemblies would be fabricated, quality inspected, and tested prior to shipment. With exception of the nuclear assembly and its auxiliary systems and components, these types of major production assemblies have been demonstrated in the large diesel and combined cycle plants operating under much the same technological complexity as the proposed nuclear plant. 

The ideal combination of size and fechnology has evidently not yet been found for polypropylene—Volker Traufz, former Chairman and CEO of Basell, told the author that the boom-bust business cycles over the years in this polymer have "effectively desfroyed all investments made in the product since the begirming (the late 1950s)." This would seem to be more a problem of persisfenf overcapacify fhan finding an ideal plant size, however. Industry-wide overcapacity is ever a risk in commodity polymers, particularly as globalization has sharpened competition worldwide. 

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