Environmentally assisted cracking in light water reactors

Research during the past year focused on (1) stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of austentitic stainless steels (SS), (2) fatigue of Type 316NG SS, and (3) SCC of ferritic steels used in reactor piping, pressure vessels, and steam generators. Stress corrosion cracking studies on austentitic SS explored the critical strains required for crack initiation, the effects of crevice conditions on SCC susceptibility, heat-to-heat variations in SCC susceptibility of Type 316NG and modified Type 347 SS, the effect of heat treatment on the susceptibility of Type 347 SS, threshold stress intensity values for crack growth in Type 316NG SS, and the effects of cuprous ion and several organic salts on the SCC of sensitized Type 304 SS. Crevice conditions were observed to strongly promote SCC. Significant heat-to-heat variations were observed in SCC susceptibility of Types 316NG and 347 SS. No correlation was found between SCC behavior and minor variations in chemical composition. A significant effect of heat treatment was observed in Type 347 SS. A heat that was extremely resistant to SCC after heat treatment at 650/degree/C for 24 h was susceptible to transgranular stress corrosion cracking (TGSCC) in the solution-annealed condition. Although there was no sensitization in either condition, the presence or absence of precipitates and differences in precipitate morphology appear to influence the SCC behavior. 20 refs., 20 figs., 11 tabs