| Abstract Scope |
Adoption of additive manufacturing (AM) for energy applications are rapidly growing as the advantages within the flexible design domains and economic advantages. Specifically, new adopters within the nuclear industry are branching also to the fuel fabrication domain. An accident tolerant fuel concept by Westinghouse Electric Company LLC (WEC) includes U3Si2 fuel, chosen for its benefits in increased thermal conductivity. Shortened and consistent fabrication process exploration lead to the Idaho National Laboratory invention, AMAFT. The AMAFT process in combination with other hybrid advanced manufacturing processes, provides the unique capability to utilize multiple raw material sources, which yield commercial capabilities. Feasibility results will be discussed which includes thermodynamic and benchtop surrogate experimental results. Cerium, zirconium, and hafnium were down selected as surrogates based on their thermodynamic properties and crystal structure. Results from the surrogate compounds have provided microstructural data to design the experimental set-up to produce uranium compounds. |