Development of High Strength Low Alloy Steel for Nuclear Reactor Vessel

SA508 Gr. 4N Ni-Cr-Mo low alloy steel has an improved strength and fracture toughness, compared to commercial low alloy steels such as SA508 Gr. 3 Mn-Mo-Ni low alloy steel. In this study, the microstructural observation and baseline test were carried out using SA508 Gr. 4N model alloy of 1 ton scale. Thermal embrittlement and neutron irradiation embrittlement behaviors of SA508 Gr. 4N model alloy were also evaluated. The yield strength of 540MPa, Charpy transition temperature, T41J of -132 .deg. C, Reference temperature, T0 of -146 .deg. C, and RTNDT of -105 .deg. C were obtained from large scale SA508 Gr. 3 low alloy steel. Effect of alloy elements on thermal embrittlement was carefully evaluated and embrittlement mechanism was characterized using small scale model alloys with various alloy composition. Neutron irradiation behavior at high fluence level up to 1.5x1020 n/cm2 corresponding over 80 years operation of RPV were investigated using irradiated samples from research reactor 'HANARO'. The irradiation embrittlement behavior of SA508 Gr. 4N model alloy was similar to that of commercial RPV steel. However, after neutron irradiation up to 1.3x1020 n/cm2, SA508 Gr. 4N model alloy shows lower transition temperature(T41J = -63 .deg. C) than unirradiated commercial RPV steel because it has a superior initial toughness