U.S. RPV Surveillance Programs-PWRs: Babcock Wilcox Design

摘要

The original Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) 177-fuel assembly (177-FA) reactor vessel surveillance programs were designed to determine the effects of neutron irradiation of B&W 177-FA plant reactor vessel materials. The B&W 177-FA plant integrated reactor vessel surveillance program was developed as the result of two events: failure of the original surveillance capsule holder tubes in B&W 177-FA-operating plants and the necessity of obtaining fracture toughness data for irradiated weld metals to ensure the continued licensability of the B&W 177-FA-operating plants. The integrated reactor vessel surveillance program assesses data from two separate but interrelated projects: the plant-specific surveillance program and the power reactor program. The plant-specific surveillance program integrates the various plant-specific surveillance programs to ensure the availability of data on a timely basis and to meet the basic requirement that each operating B&W 177-FA plant reactor has a surveillance program. The power reactor program provides the fracture toughness properties of eight weld metals that complement the data obtained from the plant-specific surveillance capsules. The Master Integrated Reactor Vessel Surveillance Program (MIRVP) builds on the earlier B&W 177-FA plant integrated reactor vessel surveillance program. MIRVP includes the integration of plant-specific reactor vessel surveillance program capsules (both original B&W 177-FA plant participants and the added Westinghouse plant participants), the existing supplemental irradiation capsules developed for the original B&W 177-FA plant integrated program, and additional supplementary irradiation surveillance capsules. The purpose of MIRVP is to provide the data required to ensure the continued licensability of pressurized water reactor vessels fabricated by B&W.