The susceptibility of Alloy 600 to Primary Water Stress Corrosion Cracking (PWSCC) has proven detrimental to several nuclear power plant components. Repair, modification or replacement of the components to mitigate the effects of PWSCC on Alloy 600 has been deemed necessary. In some cases, repair or replacement of plant components can be exorbitantly expensive; therefore, modification of the components is necessary to keep the plant operable. A form of modification is surface stress improvement, which alters the stress state of the material. Changing the stress state of the material eliminates one of the contributing factors required for the propagation of PWSCC. This paper discusses the application of surface stress improvement technologies to commercial nuclear power plant components and provides insight to where these technologies can be employed in the future.
Stress corrosion cracking of Alloy 600 has lead to the modification and replacement of many nuclear power plant components. Among these components are the Bottom Mounted Nozzles (BMN) of the Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV). Modifications of these components have been performed on an emergent basis. Since that time, Framatome ANP has developed state-of-the-art modification methods for the repair of BMNs using the Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI) managed Materials Reliability Program (MRP) attributes for an ideal repair as a basis for evaluation of modification concepts. These attributes were used to evaluate the optimal modification concepts and develop processes and tooling to support future modification activity. This paper details the BMN configurations, modification evaluation criteria, several modification concepts, and the development of the tooling to support the optimal modification scenarios.
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