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DOE OSTI2024

High-Throughput Microstructural Characterization and Process Correlation Using Automated Electron Backscatter Diffraction

The need to optimize the processing conditions of additively manufactured (AM) metals and alloys has driven advances in throughput capabilities for material property measurements such as tensile strength or hardness. High-throughput (HT) characterization of AM metal microstructure has fallen significantly behind the pace of property measurements due to intrinsic bottlenecks associated with the artisan and labor-intensive preparation methods required to produce highly polished surfaces. This inequality in data throughput has led to a reliance on heuristics to connect process to structure or structure to properties for AM structural materials. In this study, we show a transformative approach to achieve laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) printing, HT preparation using dry electropolishing and HT electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). This approach was used to construct a library of > 600 experimental EBSD sample sets spanning a diverse range of LPBF process conditions for AM Kovar. This vast library is far more expansive in parameter space than most state-of-the-art studies, yet it required only approximately 10 labor hours to acquire. Build geometries, surface preparation methods, and microscopy details, as well as the entire library of >600 EBSD data sets over the two sample design versions, have been shared with intent for the materials community to leverage the data and further advance the approach. Using this library, we investigated process–structure relationships and uncovered an unexpected, strong dependence of microstructure on location within the build, when varied, using otherwise identical laser parameters.

Characterization and Analytical Technique↗

DOE OSTI2016

Building America Case Study: Advanced Extended Plate and Beam Wall System in a Cold-Climate House, Mount Joy, Pennsylvania

This report presents the design and evaluation of a innovative wall system. This highly insulated (high-R) light-frame wall system for use above grade in residential buildings is referred to as Extended Plate & Beam (EP&B). The EP&B design is the first of its kind to be featured in a new construction test house (NCTH) for the DOE Building America program. The EP&B wall design integrates standard building methods and common building products to construct a high-R wall that minimizes transition risks and costs to builders. The EP&B design combines optimized framing with integrated rigid foam sheathing to increase the wall system's R-value and reduce thermal bridging. The foam sheathing is installed between the wall studs and structural wood sheathing. The exterior wood sheathing is attached directly to a framing extension formed by extended top and bottom plates. The exterior wood sheathing can dry to the exterior and provides bracing, a clear drainage plane and flashing surface for window and door openings, and a nailing surface for siding attachment. With support of the DOE Building America program, Home Innovation Research Labs partnered with Lancaster County Career and Technology Center (LCCTC) to build a NCTH in Lancaster, PA to demonstrate the EP&B wall design in a cold climate (IECC climate zone 5A). The results of the study confirmed the benefits of the systems and the viability of its integration into the house construction process.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2023

Advancing Energy Efficiency Through Workforce Training

This Final Technical Report summarizes the work done on to develop and implement the Energy Basics Training Tool with industry partners and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. This project leveraged existing infrastructure and content developed by DOE in the Building America Solution Center (BASC) and Building Science Education Solution Center (BSESC) to design model content sets for use in entry-level construction programs at the high school certificate, boot camp, and other entry level training programs.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2014

New Whole-House Solutions Case Study: Hood River Passive House

The Hood River Passive Project was developed by Root Design Build of Hood River Oregon using the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) to meet all of the requirements for certification under the European Passive House standards. The Passive House design approach has been gaining momentum among residential designers for custom homes and BEopt modeling indicates that these designs may actually exceed the goal of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Building America program to "reduce home energy use by 30%-50%" (compared to 2009 energy codes for new homes). This report documents the short term test results of the Shift House and compares the results of PHPP and BEopt modeling of the project. The design includes high R-Value assemblies, extremely tight construction, high performance doors and windows, solar thermal DHW, heat recovery ventilation, moveable external shutters and a high performance ductless mini-split heat pump. Cost analysis indicates that many of the measures implemented in this project did not meet the BA standard for cost neutrality. The ductless mini-split heat pump, lighting and advanced air leakage control were the most cost effective measures. The future challenge will be to value engineer the performance levels indicated here in modeling using production based practices at a significantly lower cost.

BA-PIRC↗

DOE OSTI2016

Field Evaluation of Advances in Energy-Efficiency Practices for Manufactured Homes

Through field-testing and analysis, this project evaluated whole-building approaches and estimated the relative contributions of select technologies toward reducing energy use related to space conditioning in new manufactured homes. Three lab houses of varying designs were built and tested side-by-side under controlled conditions in Russellville, Alabama. The tests provided a valuable indicator of how changes in the construction of manufactured homes can contribute to significant reductions in energy use.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2014

Hood River Passive House, Hood River, Oregon (Fact Sheet)

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2014

Hood River Passive House

The Hood River Passive Project was developed by Root Design Build of Hood River Oregon using the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) to meet all of the requirements for certification under the European Passive House standards. The Passive House design approach has been gaining momentum among residential designers for custom homes and BEopt modeling indicates that these designs may actually exceed the goal of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Building America program to reduce home energy use by 30%-50% (compared to 2009 energy codes for new homes). This report documents the short term test results of the Shift House and compares the results of PHPP and BEopt modeling of the project. The design includes high R-Value assemblies, extremely tight construction, high performance doors and windows, solar thermal DHW, heat recovery ventilation, moveable external shutters and a high performance ductless mini-split heat pump. Cost analysis indicates that many of the measures implemented in this project did not meet the BA standard for cost neutrality. The ductless mini-split heat pump, lighting and advanced air leakage control were the most cost effective measures. The future challenge will be to value engineer the performance levels indicated here in modeling using production based practices at a significantly lower cost.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2014

Hood River Passive House

The Hood River Passive Project was developed by Root Design Build of Hood River Oregon using the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) to meet all of the requirements for certification under the European Passive House standards. The Passive House design approach has been gaining momentum among residential designers for custom homes and BEopt modeling indicates that these designs may actually exceed the goal of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Building America program to "reduce home energy use by 30%-50% (compared to 2009 energy codes for new homes). This report documents the short term test results of the Shift House and compares the results of PHPP and BEopt modeling of the project. The design includes high R-Value assemblies, extremely tight construction, high performance doors and windows, solar thermal DHW, heat recovery ventilation, moveable external shutters and a high performance ductless mini-split heat pump. Cost analysis indicates that many of the measures implemented in this project did not meet the BA standard for cost neutrality. The ductless mini-split heat pump, lighting and advanced air leakage control were the most cost effective measures. The future challenge will be to value engineer the performance levels indicated here in modeling using production based practices at a significantly lower cost.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2017

FY 2017-Progress Report on the Design and Construction of the Sodium Loop SMT-3

This report provides an update on the design of a forced-convection sodium loop to be used for the evaluation of sodium compatibility of advanced Alloy 709 with emphasis on long term exposures of tensile, creep, fatigue, creep fatigue, and fracture toughness ASTM-size specimens in support of ASME Code qualification and NRC licensing. The report is a deliverable (Level 4) in FY17 (M4AT-17AN1602094), under the Work Package AT-17AN160209, “Sodium Compatibility” performed by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), as part of the Advanced Materials Program for the Advanced Reactor Technology. This work package enables the development of advanced structural materials by providing corrosion, microstructure, and mechanical property data from the standpoint of sodium compatibility of advanced structural alloys. The first sodium loop (SMT-1) with a single tank was constructed in 2011 at ANL and has been in operation for exposure of subsize sheet specimens of advanced alloys at a single temperature. The second sodium loop with dual tanks (SMT-2) was constructed in 2013 and has been in operation for the exposure of subsize sheet specimens of advanced alloys at two different temperatures. The current loop (SMT-3) has been designed to incorporate sufficient chamber capacity to expose a large number of ASTM-size specimens to evaluate the sodium effects on tensile, creep, fatigue, creep-fatigue, and fracture toughness properties, in support of ASME Code Qualification and USNRC Licensing. The design of individual components for the third sodium loop SMT-3 is almost complete. The design also has been sent to an outside vendor for piping analysis to be in compliance with ASME Code. A purchase order has been placed with an outside vendor for the fabrication of major components such as the specimen exposure tanks. However, we have contracted with another vendor to establish the piping design in compliance with ASME design codes. The piping design was completed in FY2017 and the information is being transmitted to the tank fabricator. The SMT-3 loop will be located in Building 206 adjacent to the currently operating SMT-2 loop. In addition, we have demolished the aged power supply system in Building 206 and installed a new transformer, wiring, and power panels for the new loop. Procurement of some of the long lead items such as valves, EM pumps, EM flowmeters, etc. is in progress and will continue in FY 2018. The construction of components such as cold trap, economizers, piping arrangement etc. will be performed in the central shops at ANL. About 150 liters of sodium for the loop will be procured in early FY2018. The loop system is designed to circulate sodium through the sample tanks and the associated loop without an operator for an extended period of time. With the three sodium loops (with single-tank, dual-tank and four–tanks), materials can be tested at different sodium temperatures, and large tensile, creep, fatigue, creep-fatigue, and fracture toughness specimens can be exposed to sodium for extended periods of time and generate data on mechanical properties in support of ASME Code Qualification and USNRC Licensing of advanced Alloy 709 for use as a structural material in SFRs.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

DOE OSTI2017

Construction of ground-state preserving sparse lattice models for predictive materials simulations

First-principles based cluster expansion models are the dominant approach in ab initio thermodynamics of crystalline mixtures enabling the prediction of phase diagrams and novel ground states. However, despite recent advances, the construction of accurate models still requires a careful and time-consuming manual parameter tuning process for ground-state preservation, since this property is not guaranteed by default. In this paper, we present a systematic and mathematically sound method to obtain cluster expansion models that are guaranteed to preserve the ground states of their reference data. The method builds on the recently introduced compressive sensing paradigm for cluster expansion and employs quadratic programming to impose constraints on the model parameters. The robustness of our methodology is illustrated for two lithium transition metal oxides with relevance for Li-ion battery cathodes, i.e., Li 2x Fe 2(1-x) O 2 and Li 2x Ti 2(1-x) O 2 , for which the construction of cluster expansion models with compressive sensing alone has proven to be challenging. We demonstrate that our method not only guarantees ground-state preservation on the set of reference structures used for the model construction, but also show that out-of-sample ground-state preservation up to relatively large supercell size is achievable through a rapidly converging iterative refinement. This method provides a general tool for building robust, compressed and constrained physical models with predictive power.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2014

Advanced Envelope Research for Factory Built Housing, Phase 3. Whole-House Prototyping

The Advanced Envelope Research effort will provide factory homebuilders with high performance, cost-effective envelope designs that can be effectively integrated into the plant production process while meeting the thermal requirements of the 2012 IECC standards. This work is part of a multiphase effort. Phase 1 identified seven envelope technologies and provided a preliminary assessment of three methods for building high performance walls. Phase 2 focused on developing viable product designs, manufacturing strategies, addressing code and structural issues, and cost analysis of the three selected options. An industry advisory committee helped narrow the research focus to perfecting a stud wall design with exterior continuous insulation (CI). This report describes Phase 3, which was completed in two stages and continued the design development effort, exploring and evaluating a range or methods for applying CI to factory built homes. The scope also included material selection, manufacturing and cost analysis, and prototyping and testing. During this phase, a home was built with CI, evaluated, and placed in service. The experience of building a mock up wall section with CI and then constructing on line a prototype home resolved important concerns about how to integrate the material into the production process. First steps were taken toward finding least expensive approaches for incorporating CI in standard factory building practices and a preliminary assessment suggested that even at this early stage the technology is attractive when viewed from a life cycle cost perspective.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2020

First Experiments: New Science Opportunities at the Spallation Neutron Source Second Target Station (abridged)

This brochure is an abridged version of a more comprehensive companion report. DOE proposes to build a Second Target Station (STS) at SNS to produce beams of cold neutrons with world-leading peak brightness at a repetition rate of 15 Hz, providing broad energy/wavelength ranges that can be used simultaneously. Construction of the STS will provide transformative capabilities that allow thousands of users from national laboratories, universities, and industry to address grand scientific challenges [Hemminger 2015], advance energy research, and accelerate industrial innovations through the combination of cold (long-wavelength) neutrons of unprecedented peak brightness and short neutron pulses with broad ranges of usable wavelengths or energy. The STS Project, now in progress at ORNL, will design, construct, install, and commission the facilities and equipment needed to create a world-leading source of cold neutrons of unprecedented peak brightness at SNS. Key aspects of the STS design, including preliminary descriptions of an illustrative suite of eight instruments, are presented in the section “The STS at SNS.” The capabilities offered by the STS instruments (22 when fully built out) will complement those of the FTS and HFIR, providing the United States with unparalleled resources for neutron scattering at the world’s leading high–peak brightness cold neutron source.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

NASA NTRS1995

NASA wiring for space applications program test results

The electrical power wiring tests results from the NASA Wiring for Space Applications program are presented. The goal of the program was to develop a base for the building of a lightweight, arc track-resistant electrical wiring system for aerospace applications. This new wiring system would be applied to such structures as pressurized modules, trans-atmospheric vehicles, LEO/GEO environments, and lunar and Martian environments. Technological developments from this program include the fabrication of new insulating materials, the production of new wiring constructions, an improved system design, and an advanced circuit protection design.

Stavnes, Mark↗

DOE OSTI2020

Investigation of Exciton Delocalization and Exciton Coherence in Chromophores and Acoustic Nanostructures

Quantum materials have a rich potential for providing transformative energy technologies ranging from new energy efficient computation paradigms to lossless energy transport across the national grid. The field of quantum materials, however, is still in its infancy with many quantum materials systems requiring cyrogenic temperatures to be viable. Few viable, room-temperature quantum materials systems have been identified; therefore, identifying additional such systems is vitally important. This state of the science combined with the low number of potential systems that exhibit room-temperature quantum character make this field of research fertile ground for EPSCoR states (states eligible for funding under the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research program) such as Idaho to compete on a national level. As a result, this project proposed and accomplished two main goals in advancing two room-temperature quantum materials systems: (1) advance the science for demonstrating room temperature exciton delocalization in two excitonic systems and (2) build capacity and expertise in developing and understanding quantum materials at both Boise State University and Idaho National Laboratory. The work at Boise State focused mainly on the use of nucleic acid self-assembled chromophore molecule networks that offer a much easier and mature approach to construct aggregates of chromophores that can be tailored to specific two-dimensional and three-dimensional geometries and allow exciton manipulation towards achieving room-temperature quantum computation. A second complementary effort performed at Boise State and INL focused on confining excitons on quantum length scales using coherent surface acoustic phonons

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2025

Future Opportunities for LWR Irradiations in US Test Reactors

After several years of relatively low activity in the field of Light Water Reactor (LWR) fuel development, the Department of Energy again began to engage in developing new fuel technologies and irradiation performance data prompted by the Fukushima Daichi nuclear accidents. New competencies for irradiation testing in material test reactors in the United States began to be developed at this time using the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR), High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR), Massachusetts Institute of Technology Reactor (MITR), and the Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT). Capsules for testing fuel and cladding materials in ATR and HFIR were deployed, a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) condition loop for testing fuel rods was established in ATR, cladding corrosion studies were performed using a water loop in MITR, and TREAT pulse testing capabilities were commissioned for fuel rods in water capsules. The more recent and unexpected closure of the Halden Boiling Water Reactor (HBWR) also prompted further investments in Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA) testing capabilities at TREAT. New configurations of these test devices show further potential in enhanced steam condition control and other investigations are building toward a flowing water loop for testing transient to dryout conditions. The closure of HBWR also prompted a major project currently underway to construct additional water loops in ATR where a novel approach is being pursued to enable Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) conditions. A meaningful collaborative project was awarded to MITR which, amidst an unexpected major overhaul of the reactor, has expanded cladding corrosion test capabilities at MITR. New explorations have led to methods for unique experiments at HFIR including channel box irradiations. New device developments are also bridging toward future potential for instrumented capsule irradiation tests in ATR and HFIR. Finally, a new project referred to as the System Physics Advanced Reactor Critical facility (SPARC) is gaining traction towards a large zero-power reactor able to produce physics validation data for LWR fuel bundle designs with increased enrichment and enhanced absorbers for 24-month operation cycles. This paper provides a brief summary of the status of these irradiation testbed capabilities with an emphasis on current efforts toward future capabilities to obtain new data and maximize the performance potential of LWR fuel technologies.

Woolstenhulme, Nicolas [Idaho National Laboratory ↗

DOE OSTI2015

Better Buildings NW Ohio

When the Toledo Lucas County Port Authority (TLCPA) filed for the Department of Energy EECBG grant in late 2009, it was part of a strategic and Board backed objective to expand the organization’s economic development and financing programs into alternative energy and energy efficiency. This plan was filed with the knowledge and support of the areas key economic development agencies. The City of Toledo was also a key partner with the Mayor designating a committee to develop a Strategic Energy Policy for the City. This would later give rise to a Community Sustainability Strategic Plan for Toledo, Lucas County and the surrounding region with energy efficiency as a key pillar. When the TLCPA signed the grant documents with the DOE in June of 2010, the geographic area was severely distressed economically, in the early stages of a recovery from over a 30% drop in business activity and high unemployment. The TLCPA and its partners began identifying potential project areas well before the filing of the application, continuing to work diligently before the formal award and signing of the grant documents. Strong implementation and actions plans and business and financing models were developed and revised throughout the 3 year grant period with the long term goal of creating a sustainable program. The TLCPA and the City of Toledo demonstrated early leadership by forming the energy improvement district and evaluating buildings under their control including transportation infrastructure and logistics, government services buildings and buildings which housed several for profit and not for profit tenants while completing significant energy efficiency projects that created public awareness and confidence and solid examples of various technologies and energy savings. As was stated in the DOE Award Summary, the undertaking was focused as a commercial program delving into Alternative Energy Utility Districts; what are referred to in Ohio Statute as Energy Special Improvement Districts or ESIDs and what is nationally known as Property Assessed Clean Energy or PACE districts and PACE financing. The project methodology followed the identify, develop, implement, monitor and measure format. These districts began in Toledo and adjoining areas and are expanding to TLCPA’s 28 county financing agency geographic footprint. What began as the Toledo Ohio Advanced Energy Improvement Corporation is now doing business as the Northwest Ohio Advanced Energy Improvement District recognizing it expansion into creating and financing other districts in NW Ohio. The program has been sought out as an advisor by major communities and states in the process of developing similar legislation and programs and has become one of the largest most successful PACE energy improvement and financing districts in the US. The program and the energy district focused on transforming energy use, delivery, conservation and renewable energy as “options of first choice”. The significant energy savings paid for many of the improvements and created a financially viable program well beyond the grant period. The program has become a model within the State of Ohio and Nationally on how to implement and finance projects in broad energy districts including how to evolve and integrate several financing methodologies. It is a unique utilization of revolving loan funds and energy bond pooling with revenue backing primarily from energy improvement special assessments on commercial properties along with some power purchase agreement (PPA) and loan agreement revenue. The program has also incorporated Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds, State of Ohio Energy Loans (SEP), utility rebates, solar and renewable energy certificates, renewable tax incentives and grants, and owner funded equity as additional program leverage and funding. Other keys to this success have been a continual simplification and refinement of the application and documentation process to make funding available easily and quickly to building owners when they are prepared to commit to the project as well as act as a trusted facilitator and advisor to both building owners and other stakeholders. Taking a flexible and pragmatic approach to project evaluation and implementation that matches time and expense to the complexity of the project has been another key learning. To date the program has closed 3 energy bond issues through the TLCPA sponsored and managed NW Ohio Bond Fund totaling $16.54 million (of which $3.34 million were QECB qualified). The program has turned over its $3.0 million revolving loan fund twice as construction financing in advance of bond issuance and currently has issued $1.25 million in revolving term loans. The program has $1.66 million of remaining capacity for QECB qualified bonds. The program can issue an additional $13.46 million in energy bonds continuing to utilize its DOE EECBG loan loss reserves. In addition, the program has available $3.6 million of loan loss reserves from the State of Ohio, as an eligible Port Authority, that can back the issuance of an additional $7.2 to $14.4 million of energy bonds. This does not include additional bond capacity is available from the NW Ohio Bond Fund. The program is the master escrow agent for $18 million of loan loss reserves from the State of Ohio for eligible Port Authorities that can be utilized to assist the formation of energy districts and financing programs in major metropolitan areas and regions around the State of Ohio. Other leveraged funds now total $10 million; placing the total project value completed and financed at over $30 million. In addition that program has generated an active pipeline of projects in various stages that total $25 – $30 million.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2018

Report on the completion of long-lead components procurement of new sodium materials test loop

This report provides an update on the completion of long-lead components procurement of new sodium materials test loop. The loop, designated as SMT-3, is a forced-convection sodium loop to be used for the evaluation of sodium compatibility of advanced Alloy 709 with emphasis on long term exposures of tensile, creep, fatigue, creep fatigue, and fracture toughness ASTM-size specimens in support of ASME Code qualification and NRC licensing. The report is a deliverable (Level 4) in FY18 (M4NT-18AN050503013), under the Work Package NT-18AN05050301, “A709 Sodium Compatibility” performed by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), as part of the Advanced Materials Program for the Advanced Reactor Technology. This work package enables the development of advanced structural materials by providing corrosion, microstructure, and mechanical property data from the standpoint of sodium compatibility of advanced structural alloys. The first sodium loop (SMT-1) with a single tank was constructed in 2011 at ANL and has been in operation for exposure of subsize sheet specimens of advanced alloys at a single temperature. The second sodium loop with dual tanks (SMT-2) was constructed in 2013 and has been in operation for the exposure of subsize sheet specimens of advanced alloys at two different temperatures. The current loop (SMT-3) has been designed to incorporate sufficient chamber capacity to expose a large number of ASTM-size specimens to evaluate the sodium effects on tensile, creep, fatigue, creep-fatigue, and fracture toughness properties, in support of ASME Code Qualification and USNRC Licensing. Three major long lead items were identified: 1) Selection and approval of location for the new loop and installation of the necessary infrastructure, such as transformer, power supply panels, and wiring, that is adequate for the long term operation of the loop, 2) Perform a detailed piping analysis that meets the ANL QA and Safety guidelines as well as complying with ASME Code requirements, and 3) Design and fabrication of the specimen exposure vessels that are capable of at least 42 tensile, creep, and fatigue specimens in each vessel and is compliant and compatible with ASME Code and the piping design analysis. The SMT-3 loop will be located in Building 206 adjacent to the currently operating SMT-2 loop. In addition, we have removed the aged power supply system in Building 206 and installed a new transformer, wiring, and power panels for the new loop. The preliminary loop design was sent to an outside vendor for a detailed piping analysis, to ensure compliance with the ASME Code guidelines. The piping design was completed in FY2017. The construction of components such as cold trap, economizers, piping arrangement etc. will be performed in the central shops at ANL. About 150 liters of sodium for the loop will be procured in early FY2018. The loop system is designed to circulate sodium through the sample tanks and he associated loop without an operator for an extended period of time. With the three sodium loops (i.e., single-tank, dual-tank and four–tank), materials can be tested at different sodium temperatures, and large tensile, creep, fatigue, creep-fatigue, and fracture toughness specimens can be exposed to sodium for extended periods of time and generate data on mechanical properties in support of ASME Code Qualification and USNRC Licensing of advanced Alloy 709 for use as a structural material in SFRs.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Perspective on “code qualifying” new graphite grades for use in advanced nuclear reactors*

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) publishes the Boiler and Pressure Vessel (BPV) Code, which include guidance for the safe development, construction, and operation of boilers and pressure vessels. ASME BPV Code Section III “Rules for Construction of Nuclear Facility Components” Division 5 focuses on “High Temperature Reactors”. Subsection HH, subpart A lists the different materials properties that are to be measured and how those properties change due to different environmental conditions (oxidation and irradiation damage) for a graphite to be accepted for use in a high temperature reactor core (i.e., “Code Qualified”). Currently there are no nuclear graphite grades that are “Code Qualified” (i.e., a reactor designer can select a graphite grade and build their reactor without any additional testing), which is due in part to development of new graphite grades in the last 20 years and the lack of comprehensive programs needed to produce the data for the code cases. This perspective is going to discuss the requirements, as called out in the ASME BPV Code, that are necessary to “code qualify” a nuclear graphite grade but will primarily focus on the practical and technical challenges associated with irradiation-induced property changes and how to address these to assist with getting graphite ready for use in advanced nuclear reactors. These same technical challenges can be expected to arise for other materials being developed for advanced reactor concepts.

advanced nuclear reactors↗