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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Fusion Science and Technology
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Latest News
TVA and Entra1 to deploy 6 GW of NuScale SMRs
The Tennessee Valley Authority and Houston, Texas–based energy production company Entra1 Energy recently announced the signing of an agreement to collaborate on the deployment of six new nuclear power plants equipped with NuScale small modular reactors.
R. K. Buddu, N. L. Chauhan, P. M. Raole
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 65 | Number 2 | March-April 2014 | Pages 248-254
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-662
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Austenitic Type 316L stainless steel plates of very large thicknesses are considered for use in vacuum vessel fabrication in advanced fusion reactors. The possible options for welding of higher-thickness plates are multipass tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding, narrow gap–TIG welding, and electron beam welding (EBW). The manufacture of double-wall vacuum vessel inner components like keys, shells, and ribs are planned to be fabricated using EBW, and some components like field joints are to be fabricated using TIG welding processes. The present paper reports the fabrication of 60-mm-thick Type 316L stainless steel welded samples with multipass TIG welding and EBW processes and sample property characterization studies. The fabricated weld samples have been tested for weld defects with nondestructive tests using X-ray radiography and ultrasonic scan tests. The welded samples have been characterized for mechanical properties such as tensile, bend, Vickers hardness, and Charpy V-notch impact tests. Microstructure analysis has been carried out for both welded samples for the base metal, heat-affected zone, and weld zone. Impact-tested sample fracture analysis has been done by scanning electron microscopy.