---
title: "Researchers 3D print tungsten parts for nuclear reactors"
url: https://www.voxelmatters.com/researchers-3d-print-tungsten-parts-for-nuclear-reactors/
date: 2024-10-03
modified: 2024-10-03
lang: en
author: "Edward Wakefield"
description: "According to Iowa State University, Sougata Roy, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and a Building a World of Difference Faculty Fellow in Engineering, has received a four-year, $1 million grant..."
categories:
  - "Advanced Materials"
  - "AM for Energy"
  - "AM Powders"
  - "AM Research"
  - "Metal Additive Manufacturing"
  - "Metals"
  - "Nuclear Energy"
tags:
  - "future"
image: https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/5CKB-640x427.jpeg
word_count: 481
---

# Researchers 3D print tungsten parts for nuclear reactors

[According to Iowa State University](https://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2024/10/02/tungsten), Sougata Roy, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and a Building a World of Difference Faculty Fellow in Engineering, has received a four-year, $1 million grant from the US Department of Energy (DoE) to study the possibilities of using 3D printed tungsten to create shields and [components that could be used in nuclear reactors](https://www.voxelmatters.com/nuclear-amrc-orders-3d-printed-tungsten-parts-from-freemelt/).

The grant will allow Roy to assemble what he calls the DREAM-TEAM project: 'Developing a Robust Ecosystem for Additive Manufacturing of Tungsten for Extreme Applications and Management'.

“This work in advanced manufacturing, particularly in using additive manufacturing, is about making a difference,” said Roy. “One of the major things that excites me about this project is [working with nuclear energy](https://www.voxelmatters.com/westinghouse-improves-nuclear-reactor-safety-and-efficiency-with-am/). It’s the largest source of clean power in the United States. This emission-free electricity is important for the future.”

The US Energy Information Administration reports that the US produces about 19% of its electricity from nuclear power, and about 10% comes from the country’s wind turbines.

Joining Roy on the project are Yachao Wang, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of North Dakota, and researchers from three of the US Department of Energy’s labs: Ames National Laboratory on the Iowa State campus, Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, and [Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee](https://www.voxelmatters.com/ornl-to-3d-print-large-hydropower-runners-for-use-in-dams/).

The grant is part of a $36 million effort by the energy department’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (known as EPSCoR) - designed to build energy-related research capabilities and expertise across the country.

The researchers will work with [tungsten, a top material candidate](https://www.voxelmatters.com/sandvik-freemelt-and-mid-sweden-university-to-advance-tungsten-powder-am/) for the inner walls of fusion reactors because it maintains strength at high temperatures, has a high melting temperature, resists erosion under high-energy neutron irradiation, and retains low levels of radioactive tritium.

However, tungsten is expensive for conventional manufacturers to work with because it’s hard and brittle. So, the researchers turned to a more novel process - 3D printing tungsten-based alloys using laser powder-blown directed-energy deposition, which involves using a laser under oxygen-controlled conditions to process tungsten powder and, layer by layer, print the metal.

Roy, who has experience 3D printing other [steel-based alloys for nuclear energy applications](https://www.voxelmatters.com/additive-manufacturing-is-going-nuclear/), said the project will allow him to purchase a new instrument to characterize the mechanical properties (including the instrumented indentation characteristics and the fracture toughness) of the printed samples.

He also said the most unique part of the project isn’t the actual printing, but rather the physics-based modeling and computational simulations of the printing process that will complement the experimental work. The modeling and simulations, which will include work with machine learning and artificial intelligence tools, will help researchers establish the theories behind their experimental results. The simulations will also help them develop recipes for tungsten alloys that can withstand the extreme conditions inside a nuclear reactor.

“We’ll start with pure tungsten,” said Sougata Roy. “Eventually we’ll develop new alloys to resolve this cracking challenge.”