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Aging of nuclear power plant safety cables

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6085011

Results from an extensive aging program on polymeric materials stripped from unused nuclear reactor safety cables are described. Mechanical damage was monitored after room temperature aging in a Co-60 gamma radiation source at various humidities and radiation dose rates ranging from 1.2 Mrad/h to 2 krad/h. For chloroprene, chlorosulfonated polyethylene, and silicone materials, the mechanical degradation was found to depend only on the total integrated radiation dose, implying that radiation dose rate effects are small. On the other hand, strong evidence for radiation dose rate effects were found for an ethylene propylene rubber material and a cross-linked polyolefin material. Humidity effects were determined to be insignificant for all the materials studied.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-76DP00789
OSTI ID:
6085011
Report Number(s):
SAND-78-0344-J; ON: TI86006905
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English