A New Nickel-Based Weld Filler Metal for Use in Nuclear Power Plant Construction

摘要

Recent designs of commercial nuclear power plants, the so called 3rd generation plants, all make wideuse of UNS N06690 (commonly known as alloy 690) for reactor and steam generator components. UNSN06690 is orders of magnitude more resistant to primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC) thanthe UNS N06600 (commonly known as alloy 600) used in previous generations of nuclear power plantdesign. While changing to UNS N06690 solved the PWSCC issue, there are still some issues involvedwith the corresponding switch in weld metals from ERNiCr-3 to ERNiCrFe-7. The ERNiCrFe-7 issomewhat more prone to fissures and cracking during welding, which can make the consistentproduction of sound welds more of a challenge.Recent work has culminated in a special wire chemistry that balances the various requirements forresistance to hot cracking, ductility dip cracking, and PWSCC. This new filler metal has been tested invarious joint designs and consistently out-performs all other variations of ERNiCrFe-7 commerciallyavailable. This new filler metal is now gaining interest in the nuclear materials community and is nowbeing offered as a commercial product. While some additional application qualification testing will berequired, the volume of test data already generated support the immediate consideration of ERNiCrFe-15 as a filler metal and cladding weld metal for use in all commercial nuclear reactor components.