Environmentally assisted cracking in light water reactors

The objectives of this program are to develop an independent capability for the detection and control of stress-corrosion cracking (SCC) in light-water reactor (LWR) systems and to evaluate of the technical merits of proposed remedies for the problem. The experimental work is initially concentrated on problems related to intergranular SCC in BWR piping systems. The BWR utilities, the reactor vendors, and related research organizations have developed remedies for the pipe cracking problems and have begun to develop the crack-growth-rate data base which is needed to assure the integrity of degraded piping and to develop an adequate plan for the inspection and monitoring of such piping. The performance of the remedies in laboratory tests is quite encouraging, but there are still technical questions which must be addressed to ensure that the laboratory results will accurately reflect performance in-reactor. For existing plants even with the assurance of leak-before-break it is important to upgrade the capability to detect leaks rather than completely relying on periodic in-service inspection. Although other leak detection system (e.g., moisture-sensitive tapes) will be considered, acoustic leak detection systems seem to offer the best combination of sensitivity, ability to locate a leak, and leak-rate measurement. The assessment and development of a practical leak detection system is another important objective of this program