3D Systems Partners With Savannah River Lab on Nuclear-Grade Additive Manufacturing

The deal

3D Systems signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with Savannah River National Laboratory to advance additive manufacturing for nuclear energy and national security. The work will take place inside SRNL's Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative, a 60,000-square-foot, $50 million facility on the University of South Carolina Aiken campus.

The partnership targets conventional nuclear components such as valves, pumps, and heat exchangers, alongside small modular reactor technology. It also covers workforce development programs to train additive manufacturing scientists and technicians in the region.

Why a CRADA matters

CRADAs let private companies share staff, equipment, and facilities with federal labs while retaining patent rights on resulting inventions. For 3D Systems, the agreement provides a direct path into nuclear qualification, where regulatory trust matters more than marketing claims.

3D Systems equipment is already installed at the AMC, and resident AM experts will support both research and production-ready process demonstrations. The company frames the deal as a step from lab research to commercial nuclear parts.

Nuclear demand is growing

The U.S. Army recently announced a $2.2 billion program to build small modular reactors on five domestic bases. That kind of spending creates a real need for domestic parts manufacturing. Forging and casting capacity cannot keep pace with the next generation of reactors, and additive manufacturing is being pulled in to fill the gap.

Oak Ridge and Idaho National Laboratories are also using AI-guided 3D printing for real-time defect detection on reactor pressure vessels. The common thread is qualification: regulators need evidence that printed parts can survive inside a reactor before they see wide deployment.

What 3D Systems brings

3D Systems has longstanding expertise in design for additive manufacturing for thermal management, which is indispensable for both nuclear reactors and the data center cooling infrastructure that will depend on them. Its defense market experience also provides a track record for turning R&D into commercially viable technologies.

The partnership with SRNL includes specific goals around workforce development, an area where the lab's South Carolina location aligns with 3D Systems' headquarters. The company says it is focused on delivering results that apply directly to real-world commercialization.