British company pioneers new nuclear welding technique

[NNadir]

If we have any hope of addressing climate change, increasingly a long shot, we will need to scale up nuclear energy much faster than even the remarkable pace at which China is now putting out new nuclear reactors, a pace matching that of the United States in the 1960's and 1970's, when the US built more than 100 nuclear power reactors in less than 25 years. The result left the United States the world's largest producer of nuclear energy up to this day. Starting almost from zero in 2000, China has surpassed France as the world's second largest producer of nuclear energy after the United States.

As my son is involved in nuclear metallurgy, and works with ion beams in labs working on 3D printing of reactor cores, and in fact because my son received his Masters degree in work involving welding, this high speed technology for ion beam welding to reduce the time required for welds, this article immediately caught my eye

British company pioneers new nuclear welding technique

Subtitle:

Sheffield Forgemasters has completed weld-assembly of a full-sized small modular reactor (SMR) nuclear vessel demonstrator assembly using Local Electron-Beam Welding (LEBW). It said the technique took less than 24 hours to complete four, thick, nuclear-grade welds, typically requiring a year of work to complete.

Some excerpts of the short article:

"With a diameter of three metres and a wall thickness of 200mm, construction of the vessel showcases the reliability and capabilities of LEBW, setting a dramatic new standard for weld-joining thick-walled components, previously untrialled in a demonstrator model," the company said.

Sheffield Forgemasters deployed specially developed parameters, meticulously fine-tuned during the welding development stage, including innovative sloping-in and sloping-out techniques to start and finish the weld, ensuring a clean and complete weld-join.

"We are delighted to have reached a significant milestone in assembling a nuclear vessel demonstrator, using electron beam welding for the first time at this scale, with 100% success and no defects," said Jesus Talamantes-Silva, research, design and technology director at Sheffield Forgemasters.

Michael Blackmore, senior development engineer and project lead, added: "The implication of this technology within the nuclear industry is monumental, potentially taking high-cost welding processes out of the equation.

"Not only does this reduce the need for weld-inspections, because the weld-join replicates the parent material, but it could also dramatically speed up the roll-out of SMR reactors across the UK and beyond, that's how disruptive the LEBW breakthrough is."

Sheffield Forgemasters - the only company in the UK with the capability to manufacture the large forgings required for SMRs - said the demonstration of LEBW technology's potential opens new horizons for "more efficient, low-cost and less time-heavy nuclear assemblies" and also has far-reaching implications for other projects which require thick-walled welded assemblies... "With a diameter of three metres and a wall thickness of 200mm, construction of the vessel showcases the reliability and capabilities of LEBW, setting a dramatic new standard for weld-joining thick-walled components, previously untrialled in a demonstrator model," the company said.

Sheffield Forgemasters deployed specially developed parameters, meticulously fine-tuned during the welding development stage, including innovative sloping-in and sloping-out techniques to start and finish the weld, ensuring a clean and complete weld-join.

"We are delighted to have reached a significant milestone in assembling a nuclear vessel demonstrator, using electron beam welding for the first time at this scale, with 100% success and no defects," said Jesus Talamantes-Silva, research, design and technology director at Sheffield Forgemasters....

If verified, reportedly this technology will reduce the time required for weld inspections.

When the French nuclear industry was being drained of funding and used as a cash cow for a misguided attempt to replace the magnificent French nuclear industry with rickety so called "renewable energy," problems with welds in the reactors were observed and the infrastructure fell into decay and disuse while the problems were corrected. After two years, to reengage the fight against climate change, the French nuclear industry is well on its way to recovery, with production approaching earlier levels and profitability. This said, we have to do far more to address climate change than simply keeping our current reactors going; we have to exceed the remarkable Chinese pace world wide in building new reactors.

This British technology is a step in the right direction.

There is a photograph of the core subject to these novel welds at the link to the full article, which is free to read.