Department of Energy Partners with the Electric Power Research Institute to Develop Innovative Manufacturing Technologies for Small Modular Reactors

September 29, 2017 – The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is contributing $2.5 million to a four year Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)-led project ($8.1 million total) to investigate and demonstrate new manufacturing and fabrication technologies with a goal of producing the ASME-code acceptable critical assemblies of a two-thirds scale demonstration small modular reactor (SMR) reactor pressure vessel (RPV). EPRI will work with a number of U.S. manufacturers to demonstrate six critical advanced manufacturing technologies with the ultimate objective to reduce the cost by 40 percent and the schedule by 18 months for full-size SMR reactor pressure vessels. Several of these advanced technologies have been developed on a small scale to produce high quality components with comparable or better material properties relative to castings and forgings, and may also be considerably less expensive. The first of these technologies is powder metallurgy/hot isostatic pressing (PM/HIP), which would replace many “large” forging operations previously used. Other technologies included in this project are: 

• electron beam welding, which can reduce welding time by 90 percent over conventional welding processes and methods;
• diode laser cladding, which can reduce the volume of material required for cladding by 75 percent;
• bulk additive manufacturing, which can add attachments to the reactor vessel;
• advanced machining, which can reduce machining time by 4X over conventional machining methods; and
• elimination of dissimilar metal welds, which will have a dramatic impact on future inspections and the costs associated with such inspections.

For more information on project status or to receive updates on more Advanced Methods for Manufacturing program projects, please contact Alison Hahn at Alison.Hahn@nuclear.energy.gov.