Iverson quickly sold off or closed four of Nuclear's eight divisions, slashed the number of management positions from 12 to just 2 people, and decided to focus the company's growth through Vulcraft. Vulcraft enjoyed 20 percent market share of the joist business, but it was entirely dependent on the price of steel, which was considered too expensive and sourced from unreliable sources (80 percent came from foreign steel plants). So Iverson, who was trained as a metallurgical engineer, made the historic and risky decision in 1968 to produce bar steel for Nuclear's joist business. The com any borrowed heavily to build a steel mini-mill using elec tric arc furnaces that melted scrap steel. Nuclears mini-mill experienced delays and "catastrophes" during its first couple of years, but eventually produced steel bars far below prevailing costs of traditional coke-and-iron steel mills. In response to Nuclear's new steel plant, American steel companies canceled their contracts with the company