Reactor pressure vessel integrity research at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Maintaining the integrity of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) in a light-water-cooled nuclear power plant is crucial in preventing and controlling severe accidents that have the potential for major contamination release. The RPV is the only key safety-related component of the plant for which a duplicate or redundant backup system does not exist. It is therefore imperative to understand and be able to predict the integrity inherent in the RPV. For this reason, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has established the related research programs at ORNL described herein to provide for the development and confirmation of the methods used for: (1) establishing the irradiation exposure conditions within the RPV in the Embrittlement Data Base and Dosimetry Evaluation Program, (2) assessing the effects of irradiation on the RPV materials in the Heavy-Section Steel Irradiation Program, and (3) developing overall structural and fracture analyses of RPVs in the Heavy-Section Steel Technology Program