Weldability of irradiated Stainless Steel 304 materials harvested from the National Research Universal (NRU) reactor

Journal Article · Fri Dec 09 00:00:00 EST 2022 · Journal of Nuclear Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2022.154193· OSTI ID:1960705

Li, Wenjing ^[1]; Chen, Jian ^[2]; Tatman, Jonathan ^[3]; Feng, Zhili ^[2]; Latour, Matthew ^[1]; Miller, Roger G. ^[2]; Walters, Lori ^[1]; Rosseel, Thomas M. ^[2]; Frederick, Greg ^[3]

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1. Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, Chalk River, ON (Canada)
2. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
3. Electric Power Research Inst. (EPRI), Charlotte, NC (United States)

In this work, the weldability of the neutron-irradiated Stainless Steel 304 (SS 304) materials containing estimated helium levels of 12 to 44 appm has been studied through a Collaborative Research and Development Agreement between the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The work utilizes a SS 304 component harvested from the National Research Universal reactor. Laser beam welding was used to explore suitable welding conditions and associated parameters, to determine helium concentration limits for successful welding of irradiated stainless-steels. The experimental results show that maximum fusion zone void sizes, fusion zone void quantity and total heat affected zone helium-induced crack length generally increased with increasing He levels and effective weld heat input. A proper combination of welding parameters with low effective heat input, such as, laser power, weld travel speed and wire feed speed, were shown to improve the welding quality, and potentially reduce the length and probability of the formation of grain boundary helium-induced cracking and voids of irradiated SS 304 even with He concentrations as high as about 44 appm.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: Atomic Energy of Canada Limited; USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1960705
• Journal Information: Journal of Nuclear Materials, Journal Name: Journal of Nuclear Materials Vol. 574; ISSN 0022-3115
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
Effective heat input
Helium-induced cracking
Laser welding
Neutron-irradiated Stainless Steel 304