Evolution of Standardized Specifications on Materials, Manufacturing and In-Service Inspection of Nuclear Reactor Vessels

Alvaro Rodríguez-Prieto, Ana María Camacho, Carlos Mendoza, John Kickhofel and Guglielmo Lomonaco
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Alvaro Rodríguez-Prieto: Department of Manufacturing Engineering, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), 28040 Madrid, Spain
Ana María Camacho: Department of Manufacturing Engineering, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), 28040 Madrid, Spain
Carlos Mendoza: Department of Nuclear Power Plants Life Management and Maintenance, Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear (CSN), 28040 Madrid, Spain
John Kickhofel: Apollo Plus, 8008 Zurich, Switzerland
Guglielmo Lomonaco: GeNERG, TEC Division, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica, Energetica, Gestionale e dei Trasporti (DIME), Università di Genova (UNIGE), 16145 Genoa, Italy

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 19, 1-25

Abstract: The cataloguing and revision of reactor pressure vessels (RPV) manufacturing and in-service inspection codes and their standardized material specifications—as a technical heritage—are essential for understanding the historical evolution of criteria and for enabling the comparison of the various national regulations, integrating the most relevant results from the scientific research. The analysis of the development of documents including standardized requirements and the comparison of regulations is crucial to be able to implement learned lessons and comprehend the progress of increasingly stringent safety criteria, contributing to sustainable nuclear power generation in the future. A novel methodology is presented in this work where a thorough review of the regulations and technical codes for the manufacture and in-service inspection of RPVs, considering the implementation of scientific advances, is performed. In addition, an analysis focused on the differences between irradiation embrittlement prediction models and acceptance criteria for detected defects (both during manufacturing and in-service inspection) described by the different technical codes as required by different national regulations such as American, German, French or Russian is performed. The most stringent materials requirements for RPV manufacturing are provided by the American and German codes. The French code is the most stringent with respect to the reference defect size using as a criterion in the in-service inspection.

Keywords: technical documentation; cataloguing; industrial heritage; standardized requirement; nuclear safety; historical advances (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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