US printed 3D nuclear reactor core

Nuclear power plants can be built faster at lower costs using 3D printing reactor cores.

The US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed the core of a 3D-printed nuclear reactor core in the Transformational Challenge Reactor (TCR) program . The ultimate goal of the researchers is to create a high-end 3D printing reactor that integrates sensors and control buttons, including fewer parts by 2023.

3D printing part of reactor prototype. (Photo: New Atlas).

According to the World Nuclear Association, the United States has 98 nuclear reactors operating in 30 states, providing 20% ​​of the nation's energy demand without carbon emissions. Most reactors use technology more than 50 years old. Only one reactor has been built in the last 20 years. Many other furnaces are about to stop operating in the next two decades.

Replacing these reactors is extremely difficult and costly task for a variety of reasons, but the biggest reason is that commercial reactors in the US are often large civil projects that take decades to design. , develop, manufacture, deploy, test, license and operate.

The TCR program aims to speed up the process by cutting costs dramatically by taking advantage of high-temperature 3D printing, high-end material combinations and modern reactor designs. According to ORNL, the result was that the team only took 3 months to produce the prototype reactor core.

"We have been actively developing the ability to make this program a reality in the past few months. Our efforts demonstrate this technology is ready for 3D reactor core printing , " said Kurt Terrani, director. TCR's engineering, said.

The program is currently at the stage of refining prototype design, using artificial intelligence (AI) to constantly monitor during the production process to evaluate materials and performance. If successful, ORNL believes that this technology could rapidly change the nuclear power industry.