Radiation intensification of the reactor pressure vessels recovery by low temperature heat treatment (wet annealing)

International Scientific Conference on "Radiation-Thermal Effects and Processes in Inorganic Materials"

材料科学;物理学

Krasikov, E.^1

Laboratory Head, National Research Centre, Kurchatov Institute, Kurchatov Sq., 1, Moscow

123182, Russia^1

关键词: Annealing treatments;    Coolant temperature;    Effective measures;    High temperature;    Low temperatures;    Metal properties;    Primary circuits;    Reactor Pressure Vessel;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/81/1/012002/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1757-899X/81/1/012002

学科分类：材料科学（综合）

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

As a main barrier against radioactivity outlet reactor pressure vessel (RPV) is a key component in terms of NPP safety. Therefore present-day demands in RPV reliability enhance have to be met by all possible actions for RPV in-service embrittlement mitigation. Annealing treatment is known to be the effective measure to restore the RPV metal properties deteriorated by neutron irradiation. There are two approaches to annealing. The first one is so-called 〈dry〉 high temperature (∼475°C) annealing. It allows obtaining practically complete recovery, but requires the removal of the reactor core and internals. External heat source (furnace) is required to carry out RPV heat treatment. The alternative approach is to anneal RPV at a maximum coolant temperature which can be obtained using the reactor core or primary circuit pumps while operating within the RPV design limits. This low temperature 〈wet〉 annealing, although it cannot be expected to produce complete recovery, is more attractive from the practical point of view especially in cases when the removal of the internals is impossible.