---
title: "ORNL on the benefits and challenges of qualifying 3D printed nuclear materials"
url: https://www.voxelmatters.com/ornl-qualifying-3d-printed-nuclear-materials/
date: 2025-12-03
modified: 2025-12-03
lang: en
author: "Tess Boissonneault"
description: "With growing energy demands globally and the growing importance for more efficient energy sources, the nuclear industry is ripe for innovation. Among the organizations driving nuclear innovations is the Oak..."
categories:
  - "AM for Energy"
  - "AM Research"
  - "Nuclear Energy"
tags:
  - "insights"
image: https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/ornl-nuclear-1-640x427.jpg
word_count: 712
---

# ORNL on the benefits and challenges of qualifying 3D printed nuclear materials

With growing energy demands globally and the growing importance for more efficient energy sources, the [nuclear industry](https://www.voxelmatters.com/category/industry/energy/nuclear/) is ripe for innovation. Among the organizations driving nuclear innovations is the [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)](https://www.voxelmatters.directory/company/oak-ridge-national-laboratory/), where the Nuclear Fuel Materials Group develops and qualifies nuclear materials, including 3D printed nuclear materials. ORNL recently published an interview with [Caleb Massey](https://www.ornl.gov/news/qualifying-3d-printed-nuclear-materials-accelerates-reactor-innovation) of the Nuclear Fuel Materials Group, which delves into the benefits and challenges of working with 3D printing to develop and manufacture nuclear components.

First let's look at the benefits of 3D printed nuclear materials. As Massey explains, using 3D printing within a nuclear context can dramatically reduce lead times for the production of complex components, like pump housings, valves, heat exchangers and more. While traditional manufacturing processes for these parts typically have lead times of years, additive manufacturing can realize these parts in months if not weeks.

The use of additive manufacturing can also address supply chain issues by circumventing the need for tooling and complex supplier networks. Moreover, the design freedom afforded by AM has the potential to unlock the production of smaller reactors, while the technology can also play a role in repairing and maintaining these smaller, more complex systems.

As Massey says: "Using 3D printing, we can vastly shorten construction timelines by simplifying the production of geometrically complex components for each type of reactor. Accelerating the pace of manufacturing will be advantageous, especially as we consider small modular and microreactor designs as dedicated power sources for AI data centers. These more compact reactor designs have more complex geometries which can require more difficult assembly, maintenance, welding and repairs. A robust supply chain of qualified 3D printing methods and materials will help alleviate these challenges and enable nuclear solutions to support the growing AI power demand."

[![ORNL qualifying 3D printed nuclear materials to speed up reactor innovation](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/ornl-1-340x159.jpg)](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/ornl-1.jpg)

While the benefits of leveraging AM for nuclear component production are clear, Massey also discusses the challenges of qualifying 3D printed nuclear materials. In general, qualifying nuclear materials is a time consuming process: materials must undergo extensive experimentation to prove that they can withstand irradiation fields and the corrosive environments of various types of nuclear reactor. Not only that, but even finding the test environments to qualify these materials can be difficult since "research reactors represent different operating conditions from the proposed operating conditions of some advanced reactor designs."

When it comes to 3D printed nuclear materials, the complexity of qualifying the material is actually higher than conventionally manufactured materials. With the latter, a specimen from a larger block of material can be tested with the understanding that the rest of the material will have the same properties. "With less variables to consider, this assumption greatly simplifies testing," Massey says.

With 3D printed materials, however, the properties and performance of the material can vary within a single part. This is because the boundary conditions of the solidification pathways vary depending on the part geometry and temperature conditions. To account for this, additional experiments that investigate the variance in properties within a large 3D printed component must be carried out. Massey compares it to testing every Lego brick within a large kit.

"3D printing’s main advantage over conventional manufacturing is the ability to make unique component designs/shapes. Still, unique shapes can be harder to gather testing specimens from," he says. "Qualifying these more complex geometries demands incorporating new methods into existing codes and standards to allow for unique means of non-destructive examination or the use of non-standard test specimens to generate data."

Fortunately, advanced modeling and simulation technologies are helping to speed up testing of nuclear materials—both 3D printed and conventionally made. Cutting-edge modeling tools can simulate how a material deforms based on tests in a single direction. With that data, they can predict how the material would function in any direction. AI is also playing a role in streamlining the qualification process for 3D printed materials.

"We’re also applying AI to conduct smarter sample testing," Massey says. "For example, instead of having to perform thousands of high-temperature mechanical tests to validate models, AI models can identify exactly which tests to conduct and at what stage while maintaining the same margin of error in our experimental predictions with only a small subset of test conditions. Fewer, more accurate tests accelerate the timeline for qualifying new materials."