Abstract
IASCC (Irradiated Assisted Stress Corrosion Cracking) crack initiation tests have been carried out on thimble tube material retrieved from a Belgian PWR. The thimble tube was made of 316L cold worked stainless steel and irradiated up to 80 dpa. A test setup for crack initiation tests with O-rings (sections of the thimble tube) under relevant PWR conditions has been designed and constructed. This included the design and adjustment of the O-ring compression test setup to fit into hot cell autoclaves and the development and commissioning of handling tools for sample installation and test performance. The dose profile along the thimble tube ranges from 45 to 80 dpa. This allows to add crack initiation data for dpa values that have not been significantly acquired in the range of 40-50 dpa and at 80 dpa. The first results show that intergranular cracking occurred in the O-ring specimen stressed to 70 % of the irradiated yield stress in less than a day. The on-going tests will add data at the highest dpa values tested up till now.
| Original language | English |
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| Title of host publication | Fontevraud 7 Symposium - Contribution of Materials Investigations to Improve the Safety and Performance of LWRs |
| Place of Publication | Paris, France |
| State | Published - Sep 2010 |
| Event | 2010 - FONTEVRAUD 7: Contribution of Materials Investigations and Operating Experience to Light Water NPPs’ Safety, Performance and Reliability - French Nuclear Energy Society (SFEN), Avignon Duration: 26 Sep 2010 → 26 Sep 2010 |
Conference
| Conference | 2010 - FONTEVRAUD 7 |
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| Country/Territory | France |
| City | Avignon |
| Period | 2010-09-26 → 2010-09-26 |