Behavior of stainless steels in pressurized water reactor primary circuits

Stainless steels are widely used in primary circuits of pressurized water reactors (PWRs). Operating experience with the various grades of stainless steels over several decades of years has generally been excellent. Nevertheless, stress corrosion failures have been reported in few cases. Two main fa...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of nuclear materials 2012-08, Vol.427 (1-3), p.364-377
Main Authors: Féron, D., Herms, E., Tanguy, B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Cold working
Controled nuclear fusion plants
Energy
Energy. Thermal use of fuels
Exact sciences and technology
Failure
Fission nuclear power plants
Fuels
Installations for energy generation and conversion: thermal and electrical energy
Irradiation
Nuclear fuels
Pressurized water reactors
Primary circuits
Stainless steels
Stress corrosion
Stress corrosion cracking
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Stainless steels are widely used in primary circuits of pressurized water reactors (PWRs). Operating experience with the various grades of stainless steels over several decades of years has generally been excellent. Nevertheless, stress corrosion failures have been reported in few cases. Two main factors contributing to SCC susceptibility enhancement are investigated in this study: cold work and irradiation. Irradiation is involved in the stress corrosion cracking and corrosion of in-core reactor components in PWR environment. Irradiated assisted stress corrosion cracking (IASCC) is a complex and multi-physics phenomenon for which a predictive modeling able to describe initiation and/or propagation is not yet achieved. Experimentally, development of initiation smart tests and of in situ instrumentation, also in nuclear reactors, is an important axis in order to gain a better understanding of IASCC kinetics. A strong susceptibility for SCC of heavily cold worked austenitic stainless steels is evidenced in hydrogenated primary water typical of PWRs. It is shown that for a given cold-working procedure, SCC susceptibility of austenitic stainless steels materials increases with increasing cold-work. Results have shown also strong influences of the cold work on the oxide layer composition and of the maximum stress on the time to fracture.
ISSN:0022-3115
1873-4820
DOI:10.1016/j.jnucmat.2012.03.034