Objectives
Provide further guidance on environmental limits for the avoidance of AISCC of nuclear storage vessels.
Provide guidance on the likelihood of AISCC in environmental conditions where it may occur during indoor storage.
Assist in developing NDT for AISCC detection.
Project Outline
Specimens taken from welded nuclear storage vessels made from austenitic and duplex stainless steels will be exposed to atmospheres of varying composition and temperature. Relative humidity will be controlled. The specimens will be stressed to varying levels of stress.
Specimens will be subject to NDT inspection during the test programme. This information will be used to investigate the development of SCC cracks, along with destructive methods such as metallography.
Relevant Industry Sectors
Power, Nuclear, Construction and Engineering
Technical and Economic Benefits
This work will benefit designers and fabricators of nuclear storage containers by providing further information on the effect of environmental factors on the susceptibility to AISCC of the different stainless steels used for this application.
This work will benefit users of nuclear storage containers by providing initial information on the detection of growing AISCC cracks in stainless steels.