Inside NIRMA Spring 2021

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Leaders, policy experts, researchers—and now the Biden administration—know that tackling climate change will require energy innovation. Sometimes that means inventing new technologies in wind, solar and the next generation of nuclear reactors, but it can also mean taking advanced technologies from other fields and applying them to the energy sector. 3D-printing is one innovation that is beginning to revolutionize how we think about carbon-free energy, especially nuclear. What Is 3D-Printing? 3D-printing, or more formally, additive manufacturing, takes a digital design and converts it into an actual 3D object, fashioned from plastic, metal or a composite. The technology has become more popular recently and moved from labs and issues of “Popular Mechanics” to inside our own homes. Even dentists use 3Dprinters, to make crowns from advanced materials. A 3D-printer is not quite a “Star Trek” replicator, but sometimes it seems close: in industrial versions of 3D-printing, a computer powers a laser or electron beam welder or other energy device to fuse a powder into a precise shape, layer by layer. 3D-printing has huge advantages. It allows for precisely formed parts that are more complex than could be made by casting, molding or even machining. A part can be 3Dprinted in one continuous form, rather than assembled from multiple pieces. It’s like how the advent of plastics decades ago allowed a single, complicated part to replace many that used to be fitted together from metal or wood. More Nuclear Plants Are Using 3D-Printing to Do Their Jobs Better 3D-printing is coming to nuclear energy in a big way—both for plants running now and the more advanced reactors moving from the drawing boards towards deployment. The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Browns Ferry plant will load fuel assemblies this spring with four 3Dprinted parts, made of stainless steel, fabricated by Framatome. This follows on the progress made last spring when Westinghouse Electric Co. partnered with Exelon Corp.’s Byron plant to deploy another 3Dprinted device, also within the fuel assembly. Framatome, and many others in the nuclear industry, are already working on testing and qualification efforts to deploy more complex parts. “There is a tremendous opportunity for savings,” said John Strumpell, manager of U.S. fuel research and development at Framatome. These savings can make nuclear energy more costcompetitive, speeding the transition away from fossil fuels. Strumpell and others say that advanced reactor manufacturers are eyeing 3D-printing as a way to try out designs quickly, and then rework them as needed, shortening development time and speeding their deployment to help reduce carbon emissions. This approach does more than just save time, too, as some new metal alloys developed for advanced reactors are stronger if they are fabricated though 3Dprinting than if they are produced through conventional casting. In an ambitious plan to integrate advanced manufacturing with new nuclear technology, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory is planning to build an entire reactor core with 3Dprinting by 2023. Article reprinted with permission of NEI. Read full article here. 24 Spring 2021 NIRMA.org Inside NIRMA
Advanced reactors will break the mold of what we think nuclear energy can accomplish: some will be smaller, some will use different kinds of fuel and others will do more than just make electricity. This new technology may seem like uncharted waters, but when operators, technicians and other workers start up the first reactors of the new generation, they will bring with them years of nuclear experience to run machines that have been optimized with lessons from the current fleet. While advanced reactors are often portrayed as the future of nuclear energy, it’s our current plants that have paved the way for these exciting innovations and which will be workhorses for years to come. Reactor Veterans Bring Their Expertise to New Designs Many of the workers who will operate the next generation of reactors come from a nuclear background. Even though the design of an advanced reactor may be different, the experience and instincts these operators have gained from working at the current fleet will help new plants get off to a more productive start. “They have a questioning attitude; they are always exploring what could go wrong and always understanding the notion of risk management in nuclear operations, whether it’s the oldest design or the newest design,” said Chip Pardee, the president of Terrestrial Energy USA, who is the former chief operating officer at two nuclear utilities, Exelon Corp. and the Tennessee Valley Authority. “They have respect for the technology and a bias towards conservative decision-making.” Jhansi Kandasamy, vice president of engineering at GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, agrees. She said that the presence of industry veterans will benefit the new models—like the 300 megawatt boiling water reactor her company is developing. From the beginning, a new reactor will have “people who have touched it, worked on it, and experienced it,” she said. “They’re going to be able to tell you if something doesn’t look right, because they’ve lived through it.” Experience Informs New Reactor Design Advanced reactors are designed by engineers who are fully familiar with existing plants and can use that experience to optimize the new ones, like a family building a house and wanting the kitchen just so. New reactors will be simpler to operate because of insights gained from years of operations of the current fleet. NuScale Power LLC, for example, has a very different design from the current fleet: up to 12 small reactors—instead of one or two large reactors—managed from a single digital control room—instead of one full of analog switches and dials. When the company designed its control room, it brought in industry veterans who had collectively worked at more than two dozen nuclear plants. Article reprinted with permission of NEI. Read full article here. Back to Content | Inside NIRMA NIRMA.org Spring 2021 25
Page 1 and 2: Issue # 10, Spring 2021 Inside Lead
Page 3 and 4: CONTENTS Spring 2021 in every issue
Page 5 and 6: FROM THE VICE-PRESIDENT Bruce Walte
Page 7 and 8: Defining Microfilm “Production Sc
Page 9: NIRMA’s 45 th Anniversary Confere
Page 12 and 13: Continued from previous page. Look
Page 14 and 15: A Retrospective on Information Mana
Page 16 and 17: Lifetime Member Profile MEET MARGIE
Page 18 and 19: From the CRM Records Management Car
Page 20 and 21: Digitize Microfilm/Fiche Without Sh
Page 22 and 23: News from the Records & Information
Page 26 and 27: Nuclear Must Be Part of Taxonomy, s

Inside NIRMA Spring 2021

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