Contract signed for US advanced manufacturing centre

NuScale Power and Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) have signed the initial contract for the new Centre for Advanced Nuclear Manufacturing (CANM). The contract covers prototype work for manufacturing NuScale's helical coil steam generators, a major component in the NuScale small modular reactor (SMR) design that is under certification review by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

In the first phase of the multi-phase contract, CTC will demonstrate the manufacture of straight tubes of the maximum required length, demonstrate tube bending to prototypic final helical geometry with transition bends, and demonstrate helical tube bundle assembly.

The US Nuclear Infrastructure Council endorsed the CANM as an advanced manufacturing research centre. Operated by CTC and located in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, CANM officially opened on 24 August.

"We have been making great progress with the network of companies and facilities that will be needed to manufacture the NuScale Power Module," said Dale Atkinson, COO and chief nuclear officer for NuScale. "The Centre's mission to apply advanced manufacturing approaches to our advanced SMR components fills an important gap needed to transition advanced nuclear energy and materials research and development to the shop floor, cost effectively and at the highest quality standards."

CTC is an independent, non-profit, applied scientific research and development professional services organisation.

Ed Sheehan, its president and CEO, said: "We are excited to begin this important work and demonstrate the quality and efficiency advanced manufacturing can bring to this new energy technology."

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News