Non-Helium Cold Spray System for Nuclear Component Repair and Retrofit.

While nuclear energy offers a number of advantages over conventional energy plants, including lower-cost operations and reduced carbon emission; to meet global energy needs and reduce nuclear power plant forced outages, cost effective methods of maintaining current reactors and efficient methods of building new reactors will be needed. Cold Spray (CS) is a solid-state deposition method that has been investigated in a number of applications in the nuclear sector. CS systems typically require expensive helium carrier gas to achieve the required particle deposition velocity for high-performance, dense deposits, that have lower than 1% porosityi. General statement of how this problem is being addressed. To reduce maintenance/repair costs, and improve efficiency, and extend operational lifetime, VRC Metal Systems, LLC, (VRC) proposes non-helium, high-pressure CS system for deposition of suitable materials for production, repair, and retrofit of nuclear reactor components. Hydrogen has similar gas dynamic properties to helium and would likely perform in a similar manner with respect to particle acceleration. Predictions through analytical models based on the work of Champagne and Helfritch, et. al.ii show higher velocity capabilities using hydrogen due to the low molecular weight and high sonic velocity. Hydrogen is also significantly cheaper than helium, roughly 2.5x less based on purchasing in compressed bottled form and is not subject to availability issues. Phase I Plan: 1. Finalization and testing of initial prototype. 2. Evaluate open literature and select candidate materials for cold spray processing based on their corrosion/oxidation resistance at elevated temperatures and previous investigations into their usage in reactor components. 3. Produce several powder blend materials for cold spray processing. 4. Improve deposit quality via CS parameter selection with initial prototype for comparison to helium cold spray deposits of the same materials. The primary groups benefiting from the proposed work are the US Department of Energy (DoE) and nuclear energy companies, however; the market for the proposed work extends far beyond reactor components. A deposition method that can viably coat large carbon components at low costs will be viable in many other industries including other renewable energy fields, conventional energy fields, automotive, aerospace, and many other industries.