3D Printing Can Help Clean Up The Nuclear Industry
Off the coast of Cumbria in Northern England is an old nuclear reactor called Sellafield (formerly known as Windscale) which contributed heavily to the U.K.’s civil and military nuclear programs. It was one of the world’s first reactors but in more recent times has been at the forefront of reprocessing and trying to make spent nuclear fuel either safe or reusable. As one can imagine it takes a colossal budget to run and maintain it. Even more to decommission parts and plant equipment which are no longer used.
The owners of Sellafield have always been keen to promote their use of technology. For many years they had a highly successful visitor’s centre which attracted thousands of tourists and sightseers to witness new technology in action. It was more than a propaganda campaign and actually taught people what the nuclear industry was about, how it worked, etc.
Additive Manaufacture For Extreme Environments
Sellafield has an impressive track record of some 50 years in adopting the latest technology to solve problems, often being applied in extreme environments. It now recognises the benefits that 3D printing has brought to other industries and wishes to exploit the potential.
With that in mind, Sellafield intends to use additive manufacturing in the decommissioning of radioactively contaminated plant and machinery. They are now hoping to apply the technology in reducing some very substantial costs and therefore saving the tax payer considerable sums of money.
For example one area that Sellafield intends to apply 3D printing is in the replacement of parts which are no longer made or available. Some of which were designed as single on-off items 50 years ago. In addition, even if the designs no longer exist, the remaining objects can be scanned and new ones 3D printed. The time is of course greatly reduced in terms of manufacture and this leads to further cost savings.
As Alistar Norwood stated, head of metrology at Sellafield Ltd,
“We’re seeing huge numbers of possibilities where we don’t have to redesign work, don’t have to take the plant down and find alternatives”.
3D Printing Can Significantly Reduce Decommissioning Costs
To put this all in perspective, decommissioning costs have spiralled over recent years with several auditing bodies estimating the final tally will be 70 billion pounds sterling or $117B. That has created political awkwardness and public angst about what the final bill for decommissioning will be. These are huge numbers in terms of a government’s budget. Every little helps and the goal is to have additive manufacture play its part in reducing the final figure.
Sellafield are quoted as saying 3D printing could save millions of pounds at the nuclear plant. The company running the decommissioning has already identified several hundred thousand pounds worth of savings and expects a lot more to follow. It also believes that it is one of the first nuclear plants to use 3D printers for manufacturing parts. It intends to use 3T RPD and Central Scanning Ltd to scan and 3D print the parts needed for the decommissioning in a range of materials from plastic to titanium.