Designers can solve materials problems in nuclear technology

Materials problems in nuclear power stations can rarely be dealt with independently of design, maintenance, including operation, inspection and control as well as environmental factors. Therefore they require combined efforts of designers and materials specialists. The paper illustrates this by examples of some current developments of light-water reactors: tubing in condensers and steam generators in PWR, primary piping in BWR, pressure vessels and fuel elements. Keywords in the development of materials engineering and technology in this field are reliability and safety through quality assurance, rather than increased efficiency and performance data. (orig.)