Lehigh Heavy Forge Corp. will supply The Babcock & Wilcox Co. with forgings for its B&W mPower™ small modular reactor (SMR), following a new agreement. And, the Pennsylvania open-die forging company indicated it would join with the nuclear engineering group to fabricate and qualify large forgings for reactor components, which the parties intend to incorporate into the mPower SMR. According to LVF v.p. of marketing and sales Allan Robertson, the initial orders for the project could be underway within a year.
Babcock & Wilcox designs, builds, and supplies management services for nuclear power plants, and the mPower SMR is a version of the B&W mPower reactor design, a light-water reactor that it describes as "scalable, modular, (and) passively safe." The group recently earned top honors in the U.S. Dept. of Energy's Small Modular Reactor Licensing Technical Support Program, and the funding that will follow that recognition will support the development of its B&W mPower reactor technology.
Lehigh Heavy Forge, Bethlehem, PA, will manufacture prototypes and standard products for B&W as components for the reactors. Lehigh and B&W reported they would be collaborating to improve the U.S. infrastructure for supplying heavy forgings for commercial nuclear power projects. The suspension of such projects over recent decades has left a gap in the market for capable suppliers of forgings for such projects.
"As we move forward with plans to deploy the B&W mPower reactor, one of our commitments is to use U.S.-based suppliers," Christofer M. Mowry, Babcock & Wilcox mPower Inc. president, stated.
Robertson explained to FORGING that the producer would be forging shells, domes and discs, some of which will have various contours. "The concept is for B&W mPower to be able to fabricate the units in a factory setting and ship them to the site," he noted. "That dictates the size of the components."
In the course of manufacturing the prototype forgings, Lehigh Heavy Forge will seek a Material Organization Quality System accreditation with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for future heavy component manufacturing. Robertson explained that accreditation would be completed as the first parts are being processed.
Also, Lehigh Heavy Forge has plans to make carry out some plant improvements to support future B&W mPower reactor manufacturing needs. The details and cost of those improvements were not detailed.
"We have been making significant capital investments in our facilities as we get ready for what we believe will be a strong push for small modular reactor heavy components," stated James J. Romeo, Lehigh Heavy Forge president.
