Screwed
We talk a lot about rebuilding America’s industrial base. Farah Stockman found one very small reason that’s harder than it sounds: a precision ball screw used in missiles, planes and robotics that can take years to get.
This is my favorite kind of industrial story. Find the seemingly boring thing nobody thinks about, pull on the thread and suddenly you’re explaining the whole damn problem.
Follow: Farah Stockman
Read: The New York Times — “This Screw Is Needed for Missiles and Planes. Buying One Can Take Years.”
The best economic development reporter in Hurt, Virginia, this week was the local reporter
Avio broke ground on a $600 million rocket-motor plant in Pittsylvania County.
Grace Mamon went there to check it out, and she asked the question we’re pretty obsessed with around here: Why Virginia? Why this particular place?
There’s a reason I’m putting a regional nonprofit newsroom between the Times and Reuters. If you want to understand why things get built where they do, follow the reporters who actually live where they’re getting built.
Follow: Grace Mamon
Read: Cardinal News — “Avio CEO at Hurt groundbreaking: ‘We chose Virginia because of this area’”
Turns out the AI boom needs an electrical outlet
Reuters reports that the federal government plans to lend Vistra about $4.2 billion to squeeze more electricity out of its nuclear fleet.
Read that number again: $4.2 billion to get more power from plants we already have.
We’re going to keep beating this drum at Location Decision: electricity isn’t background infrastructure anymore. It’s becoming one of the first questions in the location decision. Before the incentives. Before the ribbon cutting. Sometimes before just about everything.
Follow: Timothy Gardner
Read: Reuters — “US to lend $4.2 billion to Vistra to boost nuclear power output, source says”