Nuclear construction at Purdue explores 2 powerful methods

Nuclear construction will have a demonstrator at Purdue to evaluate how to fabricate, assemble and inspect steel and concrete structures intended for future small modular reactors (SMRs). The project, announced on November 5, aims to obtain data on execution, quality and structural integrity before transferring these solutions to commercial facilities.

The collaboration brings together the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) and the Purdue Applied Research Institute (PARI). EPRI and the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) will contribute technical capabilities and guidance on quality and regulatory alignment.

The industrial interest lies in verifying the complete execution of a construction solution. Fabrication, connections, assembly and concrete placement must function as a verifiable sequence.

Nuclear construction will be evaluated through two structures

The program includes models of a containment structure and the building that would surround it. Both will use steel-plate composite technology with concrete infill, an alternative to conventional reinforced concrete solutions.

According to supplementary information published by WBIW, the structures will be temporary and will not incorporate nuclear materials or equipment. Following integrity testing, they will be dismantled and their materials recycled.

This distinction defines the scope of the announcement: Purdue will develop a construction demonstration. The results will support the study of methods applicable to future projects, without constituting authorization to construct or operate a reactor.

What changes when steel plates and concrete are combined?

The plates can be prefabricated and assembled on-site before concrete is placed inside them. This approach aims to reduce conventional formwork and reinforcement installation activities performed directly at the construction site.

Prefabrication also allows work to be distributed between the fabrication shop and the site. NRIC considers that increasing parallel activities and reducing tasks performed in the field can improve construction control.

The challenge is to verify that advantage during a representative execution. Interfaces between modules, inspection accessibility and the assembly sequence need to be addressed together.

The demonstration will generate information on constructability, quality and structural behavior. Economic benefits must be established from that evidence; the announcement does not provide verified savings percentages.

EPRI will participate in welding, NDT and digital validation

EPRI will contribute expertise in non-destructive evaluation, advanced welding and digital twin validation. NEI will advise on quality assurance and alignment with the regulatory environment.

For fabricators and inspectors, this participation connects construction with the demonstration of conformity. A prefabricated structure requires connections and inspections compatible with its geometry and design requirements.

Nuclear welding techniques and innovations provide context on the importance of procedures, qualification and traceability. The project has not yet publicly identified the welding processes or NDT methods that will be applied.

The precedent of electron beam welding in reactor components illustrates another area of industrial development. It concerns a different application and does not imply that this technique has been selected for Purdue.

The digital twin will accompany physical execution

PARI will also develop a digital representation of the structures to reflect construction progress, help identify errors and support cost management, according to WBIW.

Its usefulness will depend on linking the model to information from the work performed. The application of digital twins in manufacturing helps explain this connection between physical data, simulation and decisions, although it addresses a different industrial environment.

Validation must establish how accurately the representation describes the structure as built. Having a virtual model, by itself, does not demonstrate the performance of the complete assembly.

Testing will provide evidence before commercial deployment

The scope includes design, procurement, fabrication, assembly, concrete placement, structural testing and dismantling. Purdue will contribute its team’s expertise and Bowen Laboratory’s large-scale testing capabilities.

Advanced nuclear construction needs to demonstrate this continuity between engineering and execution. The next milestones will be the demonstrator’s technical definition, its construction and the test results. These data will help assess which methods reduce uncertainty and which require adjustments before commercial application.

Sources: Idaho National Laboratory / WBIW.