Principal investigator: Guha Manogharan

University: The Pennsylvania State University

Industry partners: The ExOne Company

Nuclear plants with ceramic materials systems is one of the most important sectors in the Pennsylvania Manufacturing and Energy economy. The goal of this project is to position PA ceramics industries as global and national leaders in the manufacturing of advanced nuclear materials by:

  1. developing a new class of ceramic materials using binder jetting technology which will provide a unique combination of high-temperature stability, corrosion resistance, and toughness necessary for a wide range of applications
  2. furthering current-future workforce-pipeline between PSU and PA ceramics industry
  3. demonstrating technological viability and economic feasibility of university-developed ceramics processing techniques into commercial products for the PA industries
  4. providing innovative design and manufacturing solutions with complementary simulation tools to validate novel advanced ceramics being developed at PSU

To manufacture these advanced ceramics with desirable features, PIs from Penn State will partner with ExOne company in Irwin, PA. There is a timely opportunity to explore this new technology for advanced manufacturing of Boron Carbide (B4C) and Boron Nitride (BN) ceramic materials, which have the potential to extend the lifetime of nuclear fuels used in current nuclear power plants.