Heavy-section steel irradiation program. Volume 4, No. 2. Semiannual progress report, April 1993--September 1993

Technical Report · Wed Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1995

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/39788· OSTI ID:39788

Corwin, W R ^[1]

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1. 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 which have the potential for major contamination release. The RPV is the only key safety-related component of the plant for which a duplicate or redundant backup system does not exist. In particular, it is vital to fully understand the degree of irradiation-induced degradation of the RPV`s fracture resistance which occurs during service, since without that radiation damage, it is virtually impossible to postulate a realistic scenario that would result in RPV failure. For this reason, the Heavy-Section Steel Irradiation (HSSI) Program has been established to provide a quantitative assessment of the effects of neutron irradiation on the material behavior and, in particular, the fracture toughness properties of typical pressure-vessel steels. Effects of specimen size; material chemistry; product form and microstructure; irradiation fluence, flux, temperature, and spectrum; and postirradiation annealing are being examined on a wide range of fracture properties. The HSSI Program is arranged into 14 tasks: (1) program management, (2) fracture toughness (K{sub lc}) curve shift in high-copper welds, (3) crack-arrest toughness (K{sub la}) curve shift in high-copper welds, (4) irradiation effects on cladding, (5) K{sub lc} and K{sub la} curve shifts in low upper-shelf (LUS) welds, (6) annealing effects in LUS welds, (7) irradiation effects in a commercial LUS weld, (8) microstructural analysis of irradiation effects, (9) in-service aged material evaluations, (10) correlation monitor materials, (11) special technical assistance, (12) Japan Power Development Reactor steel examination, (13) technical assistance for Joint Coordinating Committee on Civilian Nuclear Reactor Safety (JCCCNRS) Working Groups 3 and 12, and (14) additional requirements for materials.

• Research Organization: Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States). Div. of Engineering Technology; Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 39788
• Report Number(s): NUREG/CR--5591-Vol.4-No.2; ORNL/TM--11568/V4-N2; ON: TI95009673
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ANNEALING
CHARPY TEST
CLADDING
FRACTURE PROPERTIES
IRRADIATION
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
MICROSTRUCTURE
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
PHYSICAL RADIATION EFFECTS
PRESSURE VESSELS
PROGRESS REPORT
REACTOR SAFETY
STEELS