Modern manufacturing techniques in fabrication of components for advanced water cooled reactors

The realization of new safety and engineering concepts (e.g. Basic Safety Concept, leak before break, break preclusion) as well as economical reasons intensify the optimization of reactor coolant components with respect to reduction of weldments. This implies the application of advanced steel making technologies, assuring accustomed quality and homogenous material properties even in case of huge and complex forgings. To achieve the required component quality, it is necessary to use optimized welding processes, e.g. narrow gap welding, TIG-orbital welding technique. For piping systems progressive use of modern manufacturing techniques for the production of fittings (inductive bending, cold bending, liquid bulge) assures further improvement of structural integrity. Recently a new fabrication technique has been introduced to the market which should be considered in manufacturing components for advanced water-cooled reactors: shape welding. Cost-benefit analyses of the production of parts by shape welding show that this process is a viable alternative to forging, particularly for parts of intricate geometry. The largely unexploited automation, development and innovation potential of this manufacturing process is a special challenge for future application. (author). 6 refs, 11 figs