Framatome announced that 3D-printed fuel assembly channel fasteners manufactured at the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory in a joint project with power company Tennessee Valley Authority are to be loaded into a US commercial reactor for the first time.
The four components will be loaded into TVA’s three-unit Browns Ferry nuclear power station in early 2021. The channel fasteners secure the fuel channel to the assembly.
They were printed at ORNL using additive manufacturing techniques – also known as 3D printing – and installed on Atrium 10XM boiling water reactor fuel assemblies at Framatome's nuclear fuel manufacturing facility in Richland, Washington.
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