The fuel assembly channel fasteners will be loaded into TVA’s three-unit Browns Ferry nuclear station in early 2021. Courtesy Framatome. Framatome announced that 3D-printed fuel assembly channel fasteners manufactured at the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory in a joint project with power company Tennessee Valley Authority are to be loaded into a US commercial reactor for the first time.

The four components will be loaded into TVA’s three-unit Browns Ferry nuclear power station in early 2021. The channel fasteners secure the fuel channel to the assembly.

They were printed at ORNL using additive manufacturing techniques – also known as 3D printing – and installed on Atrium 10XM boiling water reactor fuel assemblies at Framatome's nuclear fuel manufacturing facility in Richland, Washington.

Channel fasteners have traditionally been fabricated from expensive castings and required precision machining. Additive manufacturing is a more efficient way to achieve the tight specifications of these components.

Framatome’s initiative to introduce additive manufacturing to nuclear fuel began in 2015 and is focused on stainless steel and nickel-based alloy fuel assembly components. Framatome fuel experts in France, Germany and the US developed this technology in close collaboration with customers worldwide.