Fracture Toughness Of 9Cr-1MoV And Thermally Aged Alloy 617 For Advanced Reactor Applications

Nickel-base Alloy 617 is being considered as a structural material for application in the secondary heat exchanger of the New Generation Nuclear Plant, a very high temperature gas-cooled reactor. Thermal aging of Alloy 617 plate and welds is being performed with tensile, Charpy impact, and fracture toughness tests conducted at temperatures to 950 C. Results of testing for thermal aging to 5,300 h have been obtained and are presented; varying effects of thermal aging temperature and time on fracture toughness are observed. The 9Cr-1MoV (Grade 91) ferritic steel is a candidate for structural applications in the sodium fast reactor. Fracture toughness testing of unaged Grade 91 steel has been performed to evaluate specimen size effects in preparation for future testing of the material in the thermally aged condition. Results for material in the mill-annealed and heat treated conditions are presented and show that this heat of Grade 91 steel does not indicate a small specimen bias on the fracture toughness Master Curve reference temperature.