Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has successfully tested a 3D printed specimen capsule in its High Flux Isotope Reactor. The capsule, known in the industry as a rabbit capsule, was designed and manufactured using a laser powder bed printer with stainless steel materials. This marks the first time an additively manufactured component of this type has been qualified for reactor use.
The specimen capsule underwent nearly a month of testing inside the High Flux Isotope Reactor, where it demonstrated its ability to withstand the reactor’s high neutron flux environment. These capsules play an essential role in nuclear fuels and materials research by containing experiments during irradiation testing.
“This is a significant step toward demonstrating that additive manufacturing can be used to develop and qualify specialized components that cannot be conventionally machined,” said Richard Howard, group lead for irradiation engineering at ORNL. The technology offers potential advantages in both cost reduction and manufacturing speed compared to traditional fabrication methods.
The research team plans to evaluate the capsule’s post-irradiation performance this winter. Their future work will focus on creating more complex designs that would be difficult to produce using conventional manufacturing methods. The successful test could lead to broader adoption of 3D printed components in nuclear energy applications and other highly regulated industries.
The project, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies program, demonstrates the potential for additive manufacturing in producing qualified components for safety-critical applications. The technology’s ability to create customized designs may provide new opportunities for component manufacturing in industries with strict material and design standards.
Source: energy.gov