Progress report on the development of a system for studying fatigue crack growth in SA533B R.P.V steel in representative aqueous environments

To ensure the safe operation of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station, the Licensing Branch of the Atomic Energy Corporation instigated a comprehensive programme of inspection and monitoring. One programme is particularly concerned with the independent evaluation of the structural integrity of the reactor pressure vessels in an attempt to characterise crack behaviour in the actual reactor pressure vessel steel in use at Koeberg. The short term objectives of this project are to establish a sensitive and reliable crack growth monitoring method utilising the potential drop technique and ultimately run computer controlled tests will be conducted in a simulated PWR environment. The long term aim is to characterise crack propagation in realistic PWR environments. This report describes the experimental programme and equipment that have been developed to reach the short term goals