Brian Jolly

Brian Jolly is the director of Chemical Vapor Processing in the Core Division of Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation (USNC). In this role, Brian and his team are responsible for the SiC chemical vapor infiltration and fluidized-bed chemical vapor deposition processes used to fabricate the fully ceramic fuel forms and TRISO particles at USNC. Prior to joining USNC, Brian was senior technical staff at Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL) (2008-2021). While at ORNL, Brian produced the designed-to-fail (DTF) particles used in the AGR 3/4 campaign and the UN TRISO particles used in the TCR fuel form. He also established SiC CVI processing capability which was used to densify binder-jet printed preforms for 3D-printed SiC material property studies and fabrication of demonstration TCR fuel elements. Additionally, Brian has been involved in a variety of programs involving deposition of refractory materials for space and defense applications, including leading the ZrC CVD coating effort at ORNL for a NASA nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) program, successfully coating surrogate monolithic fuel elements with protective ZrC surface coatings.  Brian is author/co-author on over 25 articles and is co-inventor on U.S. Patents “Additive Manufacturing of Complex Objects Using Refractory Matrix Materials” and “Embedding Sensors In 3D-Printed Silicon Carbide”. Brian holds a Bachelor of Science in Manufacturing Engineering from East Tennessee State University and a Master of Science in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.