The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has designed, printed, and successfully tested a sample capsule for its High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR). This milestone marks a significant advancement for additive manufacturing, which enables the creation, customization, and qualification of complex shapes more quickly and at a lower cost than traditional manufacturing methods.
Rabbit Capsules in Nuclear Research
Sample capsules, commonly known as rabbit capsules, are used in nuclear materials and fuels research to contain experiments that are subjected to irradiation in a test reactor.
To demonstrate that additive manufacturing could produce and qualify a rabbit capsule for use in a reactor, ORNL used a laser powder bed printer to print a stainless steel capsule, which was then assembled, loaded, and sealed.
Successful Tests in the Reactor
The capsule was inserted into the HFIR for nearly a month, where it successfully withstood the effects of the reactor's high neutron flux environment. This achievement is an important step in demonstrating that additive manufacturing can be used to develop and qualify specialized components that cannot be conventionally manufactured.
“This is an important step toward demonstrating that additive manufacturing can be used to develop and qualify specialized components that cannot be conventionally machined,” commented Richard Howard, leader of ORNL's irradiation engineering group.
Looking to the Future
ORNL's research team will conduct a post-irradiation evaluation of the additively manufactured rabbit capsule this winter. Successful capsule tests are expected to pave the way for the use of other additively manufactured components in safety-critical applications within the nuclear energy community and in other highly regulated industries that have rigorous standards for material composition, design, and qualification.
The Potential of Additive Manufacturing
The team that created the 3D-printed rabbit capsule plans to leverage the geometric flexibility offered by additive manufacturing to create more complex designs with unique features that are difficult to manufacture conventionally.
This work has been supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies program, which aims to accelerate the commercialization of new materials and manufacturing technologies through demonstrations and deployments.