Heavy-section steel irradiation program. Semiannual progress report, September 1993--March 1994
- Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)
Maintaining the integrity of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) in a light-water-cooled nuclear power plant is crucial in preventing and controlling severe accidents that have the potential for major contamination release. The RPV is the only component in the primary pressure boundary for which, if it should rupture, the engineering safety systems cannot assure protection from core damage. It is therefore imperative to understand and be able to predict the capabilities and limitations of the integrity inherent in the RPV. In particular, ft is vital to fully understand the degree of irradiation-induced degradation of the RPV`s fracture resistance that occurs during service. The Heavy-Section Steel (HSS) Irradiation Program has been established; its primary goal is to provide a thorough, quantitative assessment of the effects of neutron irradiation on the material behavior, and in particular the fracture toughness properties of typical pressure-vessel steels, as they relate to light-water RPV integrity. The program includes the direct continuation of irradiation studies previously conducted within the HSS Technology Program augmented by enhanced examinations of the accompanying microstructural changes. During this period, the report on the duplex-type crack-arrest specimen tests from Phase 11 of the K{sub la} program was issued, and final preparations for testing the large, irradiated crack-arrest specimens from the Italian Committee for Research and Development of Nuclear Energy and Alternative Energies were completed. Tests on undersize Charpy V-notch (CVN) energy specimens in the irradiated and annealed weld 73W were completed. The results are described in detail in a draft NUREG report. In addition, the ORNL investigation of the embrittlement of the High Flux Isotope RPV indicated that an unusually large ratio of the high-energy gamma-ray flux to fast-neutron flux is most likely responsible for the apparently accelerated embrittlement.
- Research Organization:
- US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Washington, DC (United States). Div. of Engineering Technology
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 50937
- Report Number(s):
- NUREG/CR-5591-Vol.5-No.1; ORNL/TM-11568/V5-N1; ON: TI95010954; TRN: 95:011963
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: Apr 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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