On September 30, the last of the blast furnaces at the Port Talbot steel mill was shut down. With that, a Wales town that has lived and breathed steel production since 1902 stepped into the unknown. About 2,800 jobs will be lost in this southern coastal town as the plant replaces the blast furnaces with arc reactors. For Britain, it also spells the end of an era going back to the Industrial Revolution as it loses its ability to produce primary steel—the incoming electric arc reactors will only be able to reprocess scrap metal.