en.Wedoany.com Reported - US small modular reactor developer NX Atomics has reached a production agreement with Chicago-based additive manufacturing company Sciaky to integrate electron beam additive manufacturing into the production line of the VELA reactor for manufacturing nuclear reactor components. This collaboration aims to replace traditional manufacturing methods with industrial 3D printing, reducing the manufacturing cost and time cycle of nuclear energy projects.

The fifth-generation VELA reactor developed by NX Atomics is positioned to bypass traditional grid infrastructure, directly providing baseload power and high-temperature process heat to localized high-energy consumers such as AI data centers and heavy industrial facilities. The company aims to control unit production costs below $20 per megawatt-hour.

Traditional nuclear energy projects often face economic barriers due to long manufacturing cycles for heavy components and high capital requirements. This collaboration plans to change that through industrial 3D printing. The VELA platform adopts an interchangeable architecture, with some components designed for systematic replacement during routine maintenance to reduce initial manufacturing constraints and long-term operational costs.

The electron beam additive manufacturing process used in this collaboration has previously been standardized in the aerospace and defense sectors, supplying structural titanium and specialty alloy components for commercial aircraft, naval vessels, and defense systems, as well as printing propulsion elements for orbital platforms and lunar landers.

Meanwhile, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accepted a construction permit application to deploy the KRONOS micro-modular reactor developed by NANO Nuclear Energy at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. This reactor is a stationary fourth-generation nuclear energy system, capable of producing up to 45 MWth per unit, with multi-unit configurations scalable to gigawatt-level output, designed for road transport and on-site assembly.

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