Leaders, policy experts, researchers—and now the Biden administration—know that tackling climate change will require energy innovation. Sometimes that means inventing new technologies in wind, solar and the next generation of nuclear reactors, but it can also mean taking advanced technologies from other fields and applying them to the energy sector.
3D-printing is one innovation that is beginning to revolutionize how we think about carbon-free energy, especially nuclear.
What Is 3D-Printing?
3D-printing, or more formally, additive manufacturing, takes a digital design and converts it into an actual 3D object, fashioned from plastic, metal or a composite. The technology has become more popular recently and moved from labs and issues of “Popular Mechanics” to inside our own homes. Even dentists use 3D-printers, to make crowns from advanced materials.
A 3D-printer is not quite a “Star Trek” replicator, but sometimes it seems close: in industrial versions of 3D-printing, a computer powers a laser or electron beam welder or other energy device to fuse a powder into a precise shape, layer by layer.
3D-printing has huge advantages. It allows for precisely formed parts that are more complex than could be made by casting, molding or even machining. A part can be 3D-printed in one continuous form, rather than assembled from multiple pieces. It’s like how the advent of plastics decades ago allowed a single, complicated part to replace many that used to be fitted together from metal or wood.
More Nuclear Plants Are Using 3D-Printing to Do Their Jobs Better
3D-printing is coming to nuclear energy in a big way—both for plants running now and the more advanced reactors moving from the drawing boards towards deployment.
The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Browns Ferry plant will load fuel assemblies this spring with four 3D-printed parts, made of stainless steel, fabricated by Framatome. This follows on the progress made last spring when Westinghouse Electric Co. partnered with Exelon Corp.’s Byron plant to deploy another 3D-printed device, also within the fuel assembly. Framatome, and many others in the nuclear industry, are already working on testing and qualification efforts to deploy more complex parts.
“There is a tremendous opportunity for savings,” said John Strumpell, manager of U.S. fuel research and development at Framatome. These savings can make nuclear energy more cost-competitive, speeding the transition away from fossil fuels.
Strumpell and others say that advanced reactor manufacturers are eyeing 3D-printing as a way to try out designs quickly, and then rework them as needed, shortening development time and speeding their deployment to help reduce carbon emissions. This approach does more than just save time, too, as some new metal alloys developed for advanced reactors are stronger if they are fabricated though 3D-printing than if they are produced through conventional casting.
In an ambitious plan to integrate advanced manufacturing with new nuclear technology, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory is planning to build an entire reactor core with 3D-printing by 2023.
ORNL's #3Dprinted nuclear reactor promises a faster, more economical path to #nuclear energy. ⚛️ https://t.co/CsGm3xWL6p @NSED_ORNL @ORNLEnergy_Env pic.twitter.com/6qoNbrPA2s
— Oak Ridge Lab (@ORNL) June 24, 2020
Innovations Like 3D-Printing Will Boost Carbon-Free Energy
Like we see in automobiles, aerospace engineering and other fields, nuclear plants are absorbing advanced manufacturing capabilities—made possible by the growth in computer power and expertise with new materials—to do their jobs better.
3D-printing is just another way that nuclear energy is adapting to new techniques so it can continue to power our way of life without carbon emissions. With these advances, current and new nuclear reactors will be ready to provide for a carbon-free future.
