Radiation Shield for High-Temperature Liquid Sodium Pumps

Statement of the Problem or Situation that is Being Addressed: New methods and technologies are needed to address key challenges affecting the future deployment of nuclear energy and to advance liquid metal reactors and foster growth for US industry. The goal is to develop new advanced and additive manufacturing technologies with a focus on development of insulation technology for electromagnetic pumps that can withstand high temperatures and gamma and neutron radiation during liquid metal reactor operations. The development of nuclear radiation protection materials with improved shielding capability, but reduced volume, structure, and ability to operate at high-temperature environments has become increasingly important for future nuclear reactors. Statement of how this Problem or Situation is Being Addressed: The development of advanced and additive manufacturing technologies using new materials and processes will enable fabrication of custom multilayer radiation shields that cannot be produced via conventional techniques and will enable incorporation of novel features; the potential for local control of material microstructure; rapid design-build-test iteration cycles; and exploration of fundamentally new types of materials and structures. Planned Phase I Effort: A balanced program of experiments, first principles, engineering models and analyses will be used to perform the proposed project. Custom fiber-reinforced geopolymer-based materials and an advanced filament winding with in situ potting process for fabricating improved proof-of-concept high-temperature radiation shields will be developed and demonstrated. The team has extensive previous experience working with geopolymers (aluminosilicates) and advanced and additive manufacturing for a wide range of unique applications that will be leveraged for the proposed effort. During the proposed project, a multilayer radiation shield design, and advanced and additive manufacturing materials and processes will be developed. The porosity, mechanical properties, and radiation shielding effectiveness of the demonstration specimens will be characterized. Cost models will be established to identify cost drivers and to evaluate trade-offs between design, performance, and cost. A detailed commercialization plan will be developed and commercialization partners will be identified for participation in Phase II. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: The proposed technology will result in improved radiation shields for liquid sodium and other pumps that will help to enable safe, reliable nuclear reactors. This advanced and additive manufacturing technology is also applicable to other applications that require radiation shields such as nuclear fusion reactors, space electronics, industrial and medical neutron and gamma ray imaging systems.