Staff from ORNL and BWX Technologies fabricated this component from molybdenum using electron beam melting. Credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and BWX Technologies (BWXT) recently developed a new way to manufacture and qualify parts and materials for high-temperature reactor applications. The successful demonstration builds on recent advancements in additive manufacturing and could lead to the faster production of new reactor designs that would be more efficient and economical to produce.
BWXT successfully 3D-printed core structural parts used in nuclear thermal propulsion system designs. The components were made from molybdenum—a refractory material that can be used in extreme temperatures. Working with ORNL researchers, BWXT used an electron beam melting system to print the intricate parts from molybdenum powder. Each layer, roughly a millimeter in length, was digitally captured during the process and used to qualify the components.
Refractory materials like molybdenum are extremely hard to fabricate given the extreme environments needed to create a part. The complex geometries created by the BWXT and ORNL team would have been nearly impossible to manufacture using conventional methods.
“Projects like these allow us to bring to bear our core expertise in the science of materials processing to deliver solutions specific to the demanding nature of nuclear energy applications,” said Michael Kirka, group leader for Deposition Science and Technology, Energy Science and Technology Directorate at ORNL.
Read the full article on the web site of the Office of Nuclear Energy of the US Department of Energy.
