KEY POINTS
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The Department of Energy’s National Reactor Innovation Center will partner with Purdue’s Applied Research Institute on a scaled reactor-building demonstration.
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The project will test construction, quality and structural performance of a steel-plate composite containment vessel and reactor building.
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The work will provide a chance to evaluate a construction sequence from early design through teardown, while generating real-world performance data.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Reactor Innovation Center will work with Purdue University’s Applied Research Institute to test construction methods intended to reduce the cost and risk of building new nuclear reactors, Idaho National Laboratory (INL) announced Nov. 5.
The demonstration, planned at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, will build and test a scaled steel-plate composite containment vessel and reactor building. The project is intended to generate data on constructability, quality and performance for potential use in future small modular reactor deployments, according to INL.
The Department of Energy defines small modular reactors (SMRs) as designs that use modular construction, ship major components from factories to plant sites and simplify on-site assembly.
What Construction Work Will the Demonstration Cover
Purdue’s team will support design, procurement, fabrication, field erection, concrete placement, structural-integrity testing and eventual deconstruction.
The work will provide a chance to evaluate a construction sequence from early design through teardown, while generating real-world performance data.
The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) are also contributing partners. EPRI will provide expertise in nondestructive evaluation, advanced welding and digital-twin validation. NEI will advise on quality assurance and regulatory alignment.
INL said the Advanced Construction Technology Initiative is intended to support parallel construction activities and improve quality while reducing costs and schedule risk.
“Construction risk associated with nuclear facilities has been one of the biggest obstacles” to commercialization, NRIC Director Brad Tomer said in the INL announcement.
Purdue’s Bowen Laboratory will provide large-scale structural testing capacity. The engineering lab has collaborated with industry, federal organizations and regulators, while Purdue’s research institute has prior experience testing modular composite wall systems, INL said.
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