First of a kind 3D printed parts installed in TVA nuclear reactor.
We had the pleasure of driving my son down to his summer internship at Oak Ridge National Laboratory two years back, and after he went on the ORNL official tour which met at the local ORNL museum. While we were waiting around in the museum they had on display a 3D printed Jeep that had been produced at the lab, a full size World War II type Jeep. I don't know, and don't believe that it was a working Jeep, but the scale of the thing was rather impressive.
According to my son's report, working at Oak Ridge was a fascinating experience for him; although he was an undergraduate interne, they set him free making targets for the neutron spallation facility to characterize. He had a wonderful time and learned a lot professionally and personally.
He is finishing up a one year complementary Masters in Materials Science and plans to apply for schools for a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering, with the University of Tennessee, where his advisor at Oak Ridge has joined the faculty on the list along with Michigan, MIT and Berkeley. I am very pleased he has decided to serve humanity by entering this field and honored that he has announced his intention to steal all my ideas and put them into workable form where possible.
I get to die happy, making me an extraordinarily lucky man.
Anyway, the 3D printer at Oak Ridge has now moved into practical use, making parts for operating nuclear power reactors.
The article is here:
3D-printed components in service at TVA reactor
Some excerpts:
The components installed at Browns Ferry 2 were printed at ORNL using additive manufacturing techniques - also known as 3D printing - in which material is deposited in layers, following a computer-designed model, to form precise shapes without the need for later carving or machining.
"The channel fasteners' straightforward, though non-symmetric, geometry was a good match for a first-ever additive manufacturing application for use in a nuclear reactor," ORNL said.
The parts were installed on Atrium 10XM boiling water reactor fuel assemblies at Framatome's nuclear fuel manufacturing facility in Richland, Washington. These were installed within Browns Ferry 2 during a planned outage which ended on 22 April. The fasteners will remain in the reactor for six years with regular inspections during that period.
The 3D-printed components were developed in collaboration with TVA, Framatome and the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy–funded Transformational Challenge Reactor (TCR) programme based at ORNL...
Very cool.
I dream of 3D printed solid "breed and burn" fuel elements.
ORNL has to be one of the most fascinating places in the United States. There are a lot of things I really admire about the MIT program, which is very innovative, and he clearly has a shot of getting in there, but there's nothing wrong with UT in this field, and he has great affection for ORNL. Any of the schools he's mentioned are great nuclear engineering schools.
I don't mean to gloat but I'll say it again, it looks like I get to die happy.
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