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3D Printing Possibilities: Additive Manufacturing Impact Limiters for Transportation Casks
With the significant advances in additive manufacturing (AM), otherwise known as 3D printing, Orano Federal Services and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte recently re-examined the capabilities to print impact limiters for transportation casks used to ship spent nuclear fuel. Impact limiters protect transportation casks (sometimes also referred to as transportation overpacks) and their contents during an accident. Impact limiter designs must withstand testing based on a certain significance level of hypothetical accidents, including drops, crushing, fires, and immersion in water.
C. A. Brandon, D. R. Cuneo, G. B. Engle, E. L. Long, Jr.
Nuclear Technology | Volume 4 | Number 1 | January 1968 | Pages 23-30
Technical Paper and Note | doi.org/10.13182/NT68-A26348
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An experimental assembly to study irradiation effects on the compatibility of BeO with graphite at 1500°C held one-inch-diameter rings of BeO and graphite in close contact for nine-months exposure at 1200 to 1500°C for a neutron dose of 1 × 1021 n/cm2 (E > 0.18 MeV). Postirradiation evaluations indicated that no chemical reaction had occurred. The components of the irradiated assembly were sampled and analyzed for 6Li. It was found that a massive BeO component (1-in. diam by 4.5-in. long) retained a major portion of the 6Li which was generated within it during the irradiation. No gross radiation-induced physical damage was observed in either the BeO or the graphite components. The physical changes observed were in general agreement with previously reported results.