NX Atomics and Sciaky bring EBAM to small modular reactor components
Midwest partnership claimed to be the first application of electron beam additive manufacturing technology at commercial nuclear scale
Indiana company NX Atomics, a startup developing high-temperature small modular reactors (SMRs) for clean baseload power and industrial process heat, has formed a manufacturing partnership with Chicago-based Sciaky, Inc., an industrial-scale metal additive manufacturing service provider.
The agreement will see Sciaky’s Electron Beam Additive Manufacturing (EBAM) process applied to the production of components for NX Atomics’ SMR platform.
The companies claimed that the partnership represents the first time EBAM technology has been applied to commercial nuclear power production at this scale. Sciaky’s EBAM systems have a documented track record in the most demanding sectors of aerospace and defense, having produced titanium and specialty-alloy structural components for Airbus, Lockheed Martin, the US Navy, and NASA. Commercial space companies have also used the process for propulsion components on orbital platforms and lunar landers.
Over the past decade, EBAM has progressed from prototyping to full-rate production across those industries.
NX Atomics stated that additive manufacturing could allow it to produce nuclear-qualified parts more quickly and at lower cost, and in some cases design components for periodic replacement rather than lifetime service — a model it said could reduce both upfront capital expenditure and ongoing operating costs across its reactor fleet.
“This is what bringing nuclear manufacturing into the modern era actually looks like,” said John Warden, Chief Executive Officer of NX Atomics. “3D printing opens up the potential for us to produce nuclear-qualified parts faster and at lower cost, where appropriate swap them out through life, and meaningfully reduce the unit cost of every small modular reactor we build.”
John Criso, CEO of Sciaky, Inc., framed the move as a logical progression for a company whose technology already underpins some of the most safety-critical manufacturing in the world.
“Sciaky has spent more than eight decades building the metal manufacturing technology that the world’s most demanding industries rely on,” Criso said. “Our EBAM process produces parts that fly on commercial aircraft, sail on naval vessels, and orbit the earth.
“Bringing that capability into America’s clean energy infrastructure with NX Atomics is a natural next step, and we are proud that two Midwestern companies are leading this transition.”
