Advanced manufacturing technology to boost the Spanish nuclear fusion industry

The Spanish Government has funded the RODAS project with 7.4 million euros destined for the development of materials and research in advanced manufacturing technologies that will enable components to be obtained to develop the Spanish nuclear fusion industry.

The consortium is made up of a group of research centres led by Ceit, and a group of companies that seek to resolve current technical issues with a view to obtaining large-sized critical components with complex geometries for nuclear fusion reactors, combining additive manufacturing technologies with hot isostatic pressing (HIP).

Nuclear fusion is seen as one of the most promising energy solutions for the future, thanks to its safety and practically inexhaustible availability of resources. However, it requires the manufacture of large-sized components with extremely complex geometries and excellent mechanical properties that are able to withstand very high temperatures and radiation, and this remains the key challenge facing the development of this technology. The RODAS project came into being with a view to overcoming these barriers and is an initiative that seeks to develop advanced manufacturing technology, focusing especially on the field of additive manufacturing combined with technologies such as hot isostatic pressing (HIP), and with a view to producing critical components for nuclear fusion reactors.  

The project, which is of four years’ duration, seeks to equip companies with know-how and technology that will enable them to tackle future projects in the field of nuclear fusion in Spain. With a 7.35 million Euro budget, it has received funding amounting to 5.65 million Euros from the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities via the Centre for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI) and the State Research Agency (AEI), within the framework of the Transmissions 2024 initiative.

RODAS will help to tackle current existing challenges with a view to obtaining components for nuclear fusion reactors, such as long delivery times, complex manufacturing processes that involve many successive stages of machining, joints and thermal treatment, and also high levels of consumption of raw material and energy consumption. 

Innovation in materials, manufacturing technologies and testing

RODAS is a project that revolves around three key areas: materials and manufacturing technologies and advanced testing. “With the results obtained, companies will be equipped with know-how and technology to embrace future projects and biddings linked to nuclear fusion”, the director of the Additive Manufacturing and Powder Metallurgy group at Ceit, Nerea Ordás, points out.  

Within the field of advanced materials, work will be undertaken on the development of new powder metallurgy alloys such as EUROFER and CuCrZr, which are capable of withstanding high temperatures and radiation. Additionally, the gas atomisation process will be optimised in order to improve the production of metal powders used in additive manufacturing, thus facilitating its integration into industrial processes. 

In this sense, work will be carried out on the research and development of high-performance material alloys and advanced thermo-mechanical properties especially designed for nuclear fusion components - “also demonstrating that additive manufacturing technology is both technically and financially viable, in order to obtain actively cooled large-sized components with complex geometries, capable of complying with strict nuclear fusion requirements”, as the director of business development at Leading Metalmechanical Solutions, Marcos Pérez, points out. 

In terms of advanced manufacturing, research will be conducted into different manufacturing techniques with powder or metal wire such as PBF-L (laser powder bed fusion), DED (directed energy deposition), WAAM (wire arc additive manufacturing) and the extremely new ROV-MAM technique, with a view to obtaining large-sized parts with complex geometries and thus in turn ensuring a significant reduction in material wastage. Research will also be undertaken into the hybridisation of manufacturing processes. 

One of the main innovations of the RODAS project is going to be the possibility for simultaneous application of thermal treatment and hot isostatic pressing technology (HIP) developed by Hiperbaric. “We are developing a new generation of large-sized HIP pressing and furnace – unique in Spain – with high-speed cooling and equipped with advanced control architecture via the application of artificial intelligence, the managing director or Hiperbaric, Andrés Hernando, points out.

Lastly, advanced testing will be carried out in order to validate new materials and processes using non-destructive techniques such as computerised tomography and ultrasounds, thus ensuring the integrity of the components without the need to conduct destructive tests. 

Impact and benefits for Spanish industry 

The development of these technologies will have a significant impact on industry, science and sustainability by contributing towards the development of nuclear fusion as a source of energy. Thanks to the optimisation of advanced manufacturing processes, it is hoped that production times of key components will be reduced from eight to two weeks and material wastage minimised by up to 80%, thus ensuring they are environmentally friendly. Additionally, the use of new materials will enable the duration and efficiency of fusion reactors to be improved. 

This will give rise to a tractor effect in the Spanish industrial fabric by fostering the preparation of companies in thematic areas related to materials with advanced properties, thus enabling these companies to gain a more prominent position in the science industry sector and facilitating their access to public biddings from IFMIF-DONES (International Fusion Materials Radiation Facility – Demo Oriented Neutron Source) and ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor). 

A benchmark consortium for an ambitious project

The RODAS project is backed up by a consortium comprising two groups. On the one hand, the Centre  for Technological Development and Innovation CDTI group led by Leading Metalmechanical Solutions and made up of the companies Hiperbaric, Rovalma, Innomaq21 and Novadep NDT Systems. On the other, the State Research Agency (AEI), led by the CEIT technology Centre and made up of  CIEMAT, Fundación IDONIAL and the University of Granada.

While the AEI group will be in charge of research, the development of materials, optimisation of manufacturing processes and validation of components, the CDTI group will focus on the validation of advanced manufacturing technologies and development of real-scale applications. This combination of research knowledge and industrial experience ensures the viability and success of the project, thus allowing for the effective transfer of scientific advances to industry. 

The project was set in motion in January with a meeting held at Ceit installations, in which all partners in the consortium took part. The first steps to be taken were defined at the meeting and the roadmap for the next few years was established.