An additive manufacturing technology for the fabrication and characterization of nuclear reactor fuel
This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project was conducted under Department of Energy's (DOE) Advanced Technologies for Nuclear Energy (NE) topic 19(b), entitled “Advanced Technologies for the Fabrication, Characterization of Nuclear Reactor Fuel”. Phase II and IIA preserve the two-pronged vision and goals outlined in Phase I. First, this project seeks to provide a technological answer to DOE-NE's needs, specifically in advancing the performance of accident tolerant fuel/cladding concepts in light water reactors (LWR) and TRISO fuel fabrication techniques. Second, this project will contribute to the advancement of the DOE-NE's long-term congressional mandate to enhance current reactor safety, reliability, and life, reduce nuclear proliferation risks, improve the affordability of new nuclear reactors in part through more sustainable nuclear fuel cycles. The present proposal builds upon cross-cutting advances in the following fields: (i) additive manufacturing (AM), (ii) micro-electromechanical-systems (MEMS) design, (iii) micro- and nano-scale fabrication and (iv) ceramic matrix composites (CMCs). These advances are employed in the development of novel Silicon Carbide fiber (SiCf) reinforced Silicon Carbide matrix (SiCm) CMC fuel structure. They allow the integration of the full functionality of TRISO fuel at a microscopic level encapsulated into SiC filaments, which are in turn embedded into a SiCm to form a fully integrated nuclear fuel and cladding structure. This innovation merges the functionality of TRISO fuels and current fuel rods into a single element. This novel fuel structure offers a passively safe, integral and energy efficient Silicon Carbide alternative to Zircalloy fuel rods assemblies in LWR with little change to reactor control architecture. The proposed fuel structure's elevated temperature capability and chemical inertness implies lower amounts of and easier to store generated nuclear waste. Finally, micro-encapsulation of fissile material into a CMC would make fissile material retrieval extremely difficult, thereby lowering the risk of nuclear proliferation. Phase I of this project successfully tested the feasibility of producing the basic elements of the proposed fiber-embedded structure. The following key steps were demonstrated: (1) full-density, beta-phase Silicon Carbide fibers with variable diameters and (2) direct-write of nanoporous carbon coatings to small sections of fibers. Phase IIA sequential completed the plan that was introduced in Phase II, with full knowledge that the magnitude of the proposed effort could not be contained in a single Phase II effort. The Phase II of this project was focused on the scalability of nuclear-technology bound SiC fibers. For a commercially viable “fuel-in-fiber” concept, the core SiC fibers must be manufacturable in large quantity at competitive prices. With this objective most behind us, we now propose to focus on the value added processes that gives the advanced fuel concepts made using additive manufacturing its full force.
- Research Organization:
- Free Form Fibers
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
- Contributing Organization:
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0011954
- OSTI ID:
- 1583032
- Type / Phase:
- SBIR (Phase IIA)
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-FFF_FiFIIA_Final-Report
- Resource Relation:
- Related Information: US Patent 10,546,661 B2 (January 28, 2020)Chinese Patent ZL201580045509.0 (August 23, 2019)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
Advanced Fuel Concept (AFC)
Accident Tolerant Fuel (ATF)
TRISO
Fuel-in-Fiber (FiF)
Fuel-as-Fiber (FaF)
Additive Manufacturing (AM)
Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD)
Laser-induced CVD (LCVD)
process scalability
combined fuel/clad single element
enhanced barriers to nuclear proliferation.