For decades, the nuclear industry has quietly experimented with and implemented additive. Bouyed by the likes of ORNL, companies such as Westinghouse have 3D printed components serially. We have an insightful podcast on the industry, and an overview article as well. A newer trend is that emerging nuclear energy startups are also using additive to accelerate their development.
A new crop of Small Modular Reactor companies, such as Oklo, Valar Atomics, Ulta Safe Nuclear Corporation, Moltex Energy, Radiant, Nano Nuclear Energy, TerraPower, and NuScale, aim to make a new generation of easier-to-build, easier-to-deploy, hopefully safer nuclear power plants. Small Modular Reactors are meant to consist mainly of transportable modular components that can be made in factories at scale, rather than custom large plants built at one particular location with cost overruns. Ideally, they have passive safety systems, which means that, whatever happens, the plant will shut down safely. These plants could be put in remote places more easily, so bases or remote communities could benefit.
One in this crop of startups is NX Atomics, which presumably uses Siemens NX’s Vela reactor—a liquid fuel, lead coolant small reactor meant for data centers and shipping. NX has now partnered with EBAM leader Sciaky to make components for their reactors.
NX Atomics CEO John Warden said,
“This is what bringing nuclear manufacturing into the modern era actually looks like, 3D printing opens up the potential for us to produce nuclear-qualified parts faster and at lower cost, where appropriate swap them out through life, and meaningfully reduce the unit cost of every small modular reactor we build.”
Sciaky CEO John Criso states,
“Sciaky has spent more than eight decades building the metal manufacturing technology that the world’s most demanding industries rely on. Our EBAM process produces parts that fly on commercial aircraft, sail on naval vessels, and orbit the earth. Bringing that capability into America’s clean energy infrastructure with NX Atomics is a natural next step, and we are proud that two Midwestern companies are leading this transition.”
The duo hopes to make low-cost nuclear parts quickly using an electron beam. They also say that some parts will be designed to be replaced rather than last forever, opening up an expanded reactor consumables market, presumably? Given the long lead times, traditional reactor economics is under threat. Costing decades and billions to build, traditional reactors are among the most daunting, massive, and complex engineering projects in existence. For the financial set, delays and cost overruns play havoc with business plans and the underlying economics of building nuclear plants. Famously in the UK, Hinckley Point C has cost more than double its initial estimate. This not only causes problems for banks but also for governments.
Making lots of small plants in factories therefore sounds like a
For decades, the nuclear industry has quietly experimented with and implemented additive. Bouyed by the likes of ORNL, companies such as Westinghouse have 3D printed components serially. We have an insightful podcast on the industry, and an overview article as well. A newer trend is that emerging nuclear energy startups are also using additive to accelerate their development.
A new crop of Small Modular Reactor companies, such as Oklo, Valar Atomics, Ulta Safe Nuclear Corporation, Moltex Energy, Radiant, Nano Nuclear Energy, TerraPower, and NuScale, aim to make a new generation of easier-to-build, easier-to-deploy, hopefully safer nuclear power plants. Small Modular Reactors are meant to consist mainly of transportable modular components that can be made in factories at scale, rather than custom large plants built at one particular location with cost overruns. Ideally, they have passive safety systems, which means that, whatever happens, the plant will shut down safely. These plants could be put in remote places more easily, so bases or remote communities could benefit.
One in this crop of startups is NX Atomics, which presumably uses Siemens NX’s Vela reactor—a liquid fuel, lead coolant small reactor meant for data centers and shipping. NX has now partnered with EBAM leader Sciaky to make components for their reactors.
NX Atomics CEO John Warden said,
“This is what bringing nuclear manufacturing into the modern era actually looks like, 3D printing opens up the potential for us to produce nuclear-qualified parts faster and at lower cost, where appropriate swap them out through life, and meaningfully reduce the unit cost of every small modular reactor we build.”
Sciaky CEO John Criso states,
“Sciaky has spent more than eight decades building the metal manufacturing technology that the world’s most demanding industries rely on. Our EBAM process produces parts that fly on commercial aircraft, sail on naval vessels, and orbit the earth. Bringing that capability into America’s clean energy infrastructure with NX Atomics is a natural next step, and we are proud that two Midwestern companies are leading this transition.”
The duo hopes to make low-cost nuclear parts quickly using an electron beam. They also say that some parts will be designed to be replaced rather than last forever, opening up an expanded reactor consumables market, presumably? Given the long lead times, traditional reactor economics is under threat. Costing decades and billions to build, traditional reactors are among the most daunting, massive, and complex engineering projects in existence. For the financial set, delays and cost overruns play havoc with business plans and the underlying economics of building nuclear plants. Famously in the UK, Hinckley Point C has cost more than double its initial estimate. This not only causes problems for banks but also for governments.
Making lots of small plants in factories therefore sounds like a