The U.S. Department of Energy ‘s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) claimed the 2026 SME Aubin Additive Manufacturing Case Study Award at the SME AM Awards and TCT Awards Gala, held April 14 in Boston. The honor spotlights standout real-world deployments of 3D printing, and ORNL’s entry, focused on nuclear construction, impressed judges for its technical depth, cross-sector collaboration, and broader implications for US energy infrastructure.

The project seeks to address a persistent challenge: nuclear plant construction is notoriously slow and expensive. Concrete structures alone, including radiation shielding, can represent as much as 60 percent of a project’s schedule risk. Small modular reactors (SMRs) are increasingly central to the country’s energy strategy, yet delays in building them undermine their promise.

“Construction has been a major bottleneck for advanced reactors,” said Ahmed Hassen, group leader for composites innovation and the ORNL project lead.…