| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2025 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Composite Materials for Nuclear Applications III
|
| Presentation Title |
Advancing SiC-SiC Cladding Technology To Support Nuclear Power Generation |
| Author(s) |
David Frazer, Sean Gonderman, Lucas Borowski, Rolf Haefelfinger, Mohammad Alavi, Christian Deck, Jack Gazza |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
David Frazer |
| Abstract Scope |
General Atomics – Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) is developing SiGAŽ technology, a silicon carbide (SiC) fiber reinforced SiC matrix ceramic composite material, to support safe and economically competitive nuclear power. The high temperature mechanical and irradiation stability of SiC composites will enhance the safety and improve the performance of the existing light water reactor fleet. These same attributes translate to enabling next generation fission power systems, like GA-EMS’ fast modular reactor, and support materials solutions for future fusion devices. Progress has been made in benchmarking SiGAŽ cladding performance in representative fission reactor environments, including test data from MITR, HFIR and ATR. Out-of-pile testing on joining and process scaling are underway to ensure the cladding structures meet the tight dimensional, thermal/mechanical, and sealing requirements of nuclear fuel cladding. GA-EMS has demonstrated scalability of the SiGAŽ cladding process by producing full-scale, 12-ft composite cladding tubes showing <5% mechanical performance variation over the length. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Nuclear Materials, Composites, High-Temperature Materials |