The decommissioning of the Zion Units 1 and 2 Nuclear Generating Station (NGS) in Zion, Illinois presents a special opportunity for developing a better understanding of materials degradation and other issues associated with extending the lifetime of existing Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) beyond 60 years of service. In support of extended service and current operations of the US nuclear reactor fleet, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), through the Department of Energy (DOE), Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program, is coordinating and contracting with Zion Solutions, LLC, a subsidiary of Energy Solutions, the selective procurement of materials, structures, and components from the decommissioned reactors. In this paper, we will discuss the acquisition of segments of the Zion Unit 2 Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV), cutting the selected segments into sections and blocks from the beltline and upper vertical welds and plate material, the current status of machining the blocks into mechanical (Charpy, compact tension, and tensile) test specimens and coupons for chemical and microstructural (TEM, APT, SANS, and nano indention) characterization, as well as the current test plans and possible collaborative projects. Access to service-irradiated RPV welds and plate sections will allow through-wall attenuation studies to be performed, which will be used to assess current radiation damage models (Rosseel et al. (2012) and Rosseel et al. (2015)).
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