CX-020905: Irradiation-assisted Stress Corrosion Cracking of PWR-irradiated Type 347 Stainless Steel – Westinghouse Electric Company

Westinghouse Electric Company, in collaboration with the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor (UMAA), proposes to 1) Determine the irradiation-assisted stress corrosion cracking (IASCC) susceptibility of Type 347 stainless steel as a function of neutron damage to improve IASCC predictive capabilities, and 2) Examine the relative IASCC behavior of austenitic stainless steel in two different pressurized water reactor (PWR) water chemistries. Westinghouse currently has a selection of Type 347 stainless steel baffle-former bolts in their Hot Cell facility which show a range of irradiation damage levels well-suited to this study with the possibility of more specimens being acquired at a later date. Westinghouse will fabricate the disk specimens, which are several small disks cut from the shaft of the same baffle-former bolt. The resulting sets of samples will have effectively equivalent radiation dose and service conditions which will enable the effects of the chemical environment (lithium hydroxide vs. potassium hydroxide) to be compared. Existing laboratory facilities and equipment will be used.