Abstract
Traditional methods of manufacturing nuclear fuel are labor intensive and costly, generally including extrusion or sintering processes and the use of substantially pure materials. The US Department of Energy is working to develop accident tolerant nuclear reactor fuels as alternatives to Zircaloy-4-uranium dioxide (UO2) fuel systems. This could increase existing safety margins for nuclear plants while improving nuclear plant performance and decreasing maintenance and operational costs. Idaho National Laboratory has worked with Westinghouse to develop a new process called additive manufacturing as an Alternative Fabrication Technique (AMAFT) centered on the production of one such accident tolerant fuel, uranium silicide (U3Si2). A previous feasibility study performed with surrogate material demonstrates on a manual benchtop experimental setup that U3Si2 fuel pellets can be manufactured by selective laser melting (SLM). This report provides preliminary concepts to aid in process scale-up, including improvements that an automated system can provide for optimized and repeatable material properties. Automation and robotics provide further acceleration of commercialization with the potential to reduce manufacturing time, costs, and decreased material waste while decreasing or even eliminating direct handling of radioactive materials.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Rhodes R (2018) Why nuclear power must be part of the energy solution. Yale Environment 360, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, 19 July 2018. https://e360.yale.edu/features/why-nuclear-power-must-be-part-of-the-energy-solution-environmentalists-climate
Campbell J (2017) Innovative fuel manufacturing process moves closer to market. INL, U.S. Department of Energy, 19 Sept 2017. https://inl.gov/article/industry-laboratory-team/
van Rooyen IJ, Clemente JP (2018) “Methods and apparatus for additively manufacturing structures using in situ formed additive manufacturing materials. Justia, U.S. Patent Office, 1 Mar 2018. https://patents.justia.com/patent/20180264679
Griffith G et al (2018) Preliminary AMAFT commercialization strategy. Idaho National Laboratory, Feb 2018. https://inldigitallibrary.inl.gov/sites/sti/sti/Sort_4571.pdf
Hauviller C, Design rules for vacuum chambers. CERN, Geneva, Switzerland. http://edge.rit.edu/edge/P14651/public/Miscellaneous/Design%20rules%20for%20vacuum%20chambers.pdf
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society
About this paper
Cite this paper
McIntyre, R.A., van Rooyen, I.J. (2020). Preliminary Concepts of an Automated Additive Manufacturing System for Accident Tolerant Uranium Silicide Fuel Pellets. In: TMS 2020 149th Annual Meeting & Exhibition Supplemental Proceedings. The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36296-6_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36296-6_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-36295-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-36296-6
eBook Packages: Chemistry and Materials ScienceChemistry and Material Science (R0)