Title: Irradiation embrittlement monitoring procedures and results of reactor pressure vessels of the WWER type

Authors: Ludovit Kupca

Addresses: Structural Analysis Department, Division of NPP Diagnostic, VUJE Inc., Okruzna 5, 918 64 Trnava, Slovak Republic

Abstract: This paper describes part of a knowledge preservation programme coordinated by JRC Petten. The following issues are discussed and analysed: comparison of surveillance specimen results from WWER-440 and 1000 units; surveillance specimen programme modernisation based on the new philosophy and approaches; the efficiency of Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) steel annealing by implementation of procedures such as boat sampling, instrumented hardness, neutron diffraction, positron annihilation, etc.; the analyses of irradiated samples from RPV materials by modern methods; the irradiation embrittlement of the RPV weld metal due to the effects of impurities; the evaluation of RPV irradiation embrittlement trends during planned LTO; critical analyses of existing rules and codes, used by lifetime evaluation; theoretical models which may more or less describe the influence of impurities in RPV steels; evaluation of impact and toughness test results by implementation of the |master curve approach|.

Keywords: nuclear knowledge preservation; surveillance specimen programme; WWER 440 units; WWER 1000 units; databases; annealing; RPV steel; reactor pressure vessels; water chemistry; cladding; fracture toughness; embrittlement modelling; irradiation embrittlement; embrittlement monitoring; nuclear knowledge management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNKM.2010.036912

International Journal of Nuclear Knowledge Management, 2010 Vol.4 No.3, pp.243 - 263

Published online: 16 Nov 2010 *

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