Integrity of Reactor Pressure Vessels in Nuclear Power Plants: Assessment of Irradiation Embrittlement Effects in Reactor Pressure Vessel Steels No
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156 pages, 9mm IAEA Nuclear Energy Series IAEA Nuclear No. No. NP-T-3.11 No. No. Steels Vessel Pressure Reactor in Effects Embrittlement Irradiation of Assessment Plants: Power Nuclear in Vessels Pressure Reactor of Integrity IAEA Nuclear Energy Series No. NP-T-3.11 Basic Integrity of Reactor Principles Pressure Vessels in Nuclear Power Plants: Objectives Assessment of Irradiation Embrittlement Guides Effects in Reactor Pressure Vessel Steels Technical Reports INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY VIENNA ISBN 978–92–0–101709–3 ISSN 1995–7807 P1382_covI-IV.indd 1 2009-05-05 11:14:48 INTEGRITY OF REACTOR PRESSURE VESSELS IN NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS: ASSESSMENT OF IRRADIATION EMBRITTLEMENT EFFECTS IN REACTOR PRESSURE VESSEL STEELS The following States are Members of the International Atomic Energy Agency: AFGHANISTAN GUATEMALA OMAN ALBANIA HAITI PAKISTAN ALGERIA HOLY SEE PALAU ANGOLA HONDURAS PANAMA ARGENTINA HUNGARY PARAGUAY ARMENIA ICELAND PERU AUSTRALIA INDIA PHILIPPINES AUSTRIA INDONESIA POLAND AZERBAIJAN IRAN, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF PORTUGAL BANGLADESH IRAQ QATAR BELARUS IRELAND REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA BELGIUM ISRAEL ROMANIA BELIZE ITALY RUSSIAN FEDERATION BENIN JAMAICA SAUDI ARABIA BOLIVIA JAPAN SENEGAL BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA JORDAN SERBIA BOTSWANA KAZAKHSTAN SEYCHELLES BRAZIL KENYA SIERRA LEONE BULGARIA KOREA, REPUBLIC OF SINGAPORE BURKINA FASO KUWAIT SLOVAKIA CAMEROON KYRGYZSTAN SLOVENIA CANADA LATVIA SOUTH AFRICA CENTRAL AFRICAN LEBANON SPAIN REPUBLIC LIBERIA SRI LANKA CHAD LIBYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA SUDAN CHILE LIECHTENSTEIN SWEDEN CHINA LITHUANIA SWITZERLAND COLOMBIA LUXEMBOURG SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC COSTA RICA MADAGASCAR TAJIKISTAN CÔTE D’IVOIRE MALAWI CROATIA MALAYSIA THAILAND CUBA MALI THE FORMER YUGOSLAV CYPRUS MALTA REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA CZECH REPUBLIC MARSHALL ISLANDS TUNISIA DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC MAURITANIA TURKEY OF THE CONGO MAURITIUS UGANDA DENMARK MEXICO UKRAINE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC MONACO UNITED ARAB EMIRATES ECUADOR MONGOLIA UNITED KINGDOM OF EGYPT MONTENEGRO GREAT BRITAIN AND EL SALVADOR MOROCCO NORTHERN IRELAND ERITREA MOZAMBIQUE UNITED REPUBLIC ESTONIA MYANMAR OF TANZANIA ETHIOPIA NAMIBIA UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FINLAND NEPAL URUGUAY FRANCE NETHERLANDS UZBEKISTAN GABON NEW ZEALAND VENEZUELA GEORGIA NICARAGUA VIETNAM GERMANY NIGER YEMEN GHANA NIGERIA ZAMBIA GREECE NORWAY ZIMBABWE The Agency’s Statute was approved on 23 October 1956 by the Conference on the Statute of the IAEA held at United Nations Headquarters, New York; it entered into force on 29 July 1957. The Headquarters of the Agency are situated in Vienna. Its principal objective is “to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world’’. IAEA NUCLEAR ENERGY SERIES No. NP-T-3.11 INTEGRITY OF REACTOR PRESSURE VESSELS IN NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS: ASSESSMENT OF IRRADIATION EMBRITTLEMENT EFFECTS IN REACTOR PRESSURE VESSEL STEELS INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY VIENNA, 2009 COPYRIGHT NOTICE All IAEA scientific and technical publications are protected by the terms of the Universal Copyright Convention as adopted in 1952 (Berne) and as revised in 1972 (Paris). The copyright has since been extended by the World Intellectual Property Organization (Geneva) to include electronic and virtual intellectual property. Permission to use whole or parts of texts contained in IAEA publications in printed or electronic form must be obtained and is usually subject to royalty agreements. Proposals for non-commercial reproductions and translations are welcomed and considered on a case-by-case basis. Enquiries should be addressed to the IAEA Publishing Section at: Sales and Promotion, Publishing Section International Atomic Energy Agency Wagramer Strasse 5 P.O. Box 100 1400 Vienna, Austria fax: +43 1 2600 29302 tel.: +43 1 2600 22417 email: [email protected] http://www.iaea.org/books © IAEA, 2009 Printed by the IAEA in Austria April 2009 STI/PUB/1382 IAEA Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Integrity of reactor pressure vessels in nuclear power plants : assessment of irradiation embrittlement effects in reactor pressure vessel steels. — Vienna : International Atomic Energy Agency, 2009. p. ; 29 cm. — (IAEA nuclear energy series, ISSN 1995-7807 ; no. NP-T-3.11) STI/PUB/1382 ISBN 978-92-0-101709-3 Includes bibliographical references. 1. Nuclear pressure vessels — Materials — Testing. 2. Light water reactors — Safety measures. 3. Steel — Effect of radiation on. 4. Steel — Embrittlement. I. International Atomic Energy Agency. II. Series. IAEAL 09–00569 FOREWORD IAEA Member States are giving high priority to continuing the operation of nuclear power plants beyond the timeframe originally anticipated (e.g. 30 or 40 years). As of January 2008, more than 70% of the 439 operating nuclear power plants have been in operation for more than 20 years. Nuclear power plant operating equipment, generically called systems, structures and components (SSCs), is subjected to a variety of chemical, mechanical and physical conditions during operation. Such stressors lead to changes, over time, in the SSC materials, which are caused and driven, for example, by the effects of varying loads, flow conditions, corrosion, temperature and neutron irradiation. Time dependent changes in mechanical and physical properties of SSCs are referred to as ageing. The effects of ageing become evident with a reduction in design margins and/or an increase in forced outages and repairs of SSCs. Normally, SSC ageing effects in nuclear power plants have usually been allowed for in a conservative manner in design and manufacturing specifications. During the operation of a nuclear power plant, the wall of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) is exposed to neutron radiation, which results in localized embrittlement of the steel and welds in the area of the reactor core. Ageing effects of the RPV have the potential to be life-limiting conditions for a nuclear power plant as it is impossible or economically unviable to replace the RPV if its mechanical properties degrade significantly. Research on irradiation embrittlement of RPV steels has been the subject of significant international research. Over the past three decades, developments in fracture mechanics have led to a number of consensus standards and codes for determining the needed fracture toughness parameters and associated uncertainties as derived from the embrittlement databases. This understanding has resulted in remarkable progress in developing a mechanistic understanding of irradiation embrittlement. This report summarizes the assessment of irradiation embrittlement effects in RPV steels for Western RPVs and for WWER RPVs. The aim is to support and strengthen capabilities to optimize service life by improving the understanding of the effects of neutron irradiation on the steels and welds of LWR RPVs. The IAEA wishes to thank the participants for their contributions, especially the meeting chairman, R. Nanstad, of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory USA. The IAEA officers responsible this publication were K. Kang and L. Kupca of the Division of Nuclear Power. EDITORIAL NOTE This report has been edited by the editorial staff of the IAEA to the extent considered necessary for the reader’s assistance. It does not address questions of responsibility, legal or otherwise, for acts or omissions on the part of any person. Although great care has been taken to maintain the accuracy of information contained in this publication, neither the IAEA nor its Member States assume any responsibility for consequences which may arise from its use. The use of particular designations of countries or territories does not imply any judgement by the publisher, the IAEA, as to the legal status of such countries or territories, of their authorities and institutions or of the delimitation of their boundaries. The mention of names of specific companies or products (whether or not indicated as registered) does not imply any intention to infringe proprietary rights, nor should it be construed as an endorsement or recommendation on the part of the IAEA. CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION . 1 1.1. Background . 1 1.2. Scope . 2 1.3. Users . 3 1.4. Structure . 3 2. DESCRIPTION OF REACTOR PRESSURE VESSELS . 3 2.1. RPV design features . 4 2.1.1. Western RPVs . 4 2.1.2. WWER RPVs. 7 2.2. RPV materials and fabrication . 10 2.2.1. Western RPVs . 10 2.2.2. WWER RPVs . 16 2.3. Design basis: codes, regulations and guides . 18 2.3.1. Western RPVs . 18 2.3.2. WWER RPVs . 19 2.4. NDE requirements . 20 2.4.1. Western RPVs . 20 2.4.2. WWER RPVs . 21 3. EFFECTS OF IRRADIATION ON MECHANICAL PROPERTIES . 22 3.1. Introduction . 22 3.2. Brief description of failure modes . 24 3.3. Experimental procedures . 25 3.3.1. Testing techniques . 25 3.3.2. Irradiation experiments . 40 3.3.3. Consensus codes and standards . 41 3.4. Tensile properties and hardness . 41 3.5. Notch impact toughness . 41 3.6. Temperature, flux, fluence, spectrum . 45 3.7. Quasi-static fracture toughness . 48 3.8. Dynamic fracture toughness and crack-arrest toughness . 49 3.9. Stainless steel cladding . 49 3.10. Correlations and normalization schemes . 50 3.11. Thermal annealing and re-irradiation . 53 4. MECHANISMS GOVERNING THE IRRADIATION-INDUCED EMBRITTLEMENT OF LWR PRESSURE VESSEL STEELS . 56 4.1. Materials and irradiation conditions . 56 4.1.1. Description of materials . 56 4.1.2. In-service conditions . 57 4.2. Irradiation effects in RPV steels . 58 4.2.1. Chemical composition . 59 4.2.2. Metallurgical structure . ..