Heavy-Section Steel Irradiation Program: Progress report for April--September 1995. Volume 6, Number 2

The goal of the Heavy-Section Steel Irradiation Program is to provide a thorough, quantitative assessment of effects of neutron irradiation on material behavior, and in particular the fracture toughness properties, of typical pressure vessel steels as they relate to light-water reactor pressure-vessel integrity. Effects of specimen size, material chemistry, product form and microstructure, irradiation fluence, flux, temperature and spectrum, and post-irradiation annealing are being examined on a wide range of fracture properties. The HSSI Program is arranged into 14 tasks: (1) program management, (2) fracture toughness (K{sub Ic}) curve shift in high-copper welds, (3) crack-arrest toughness (K{sub Ia}) curve shift in high-copper welds, (4) irradiation effects on cladding, (5) K{sub Ic} and K{sub Ia} curve shifts in low upper-shelf welds, (6) annealing effects in low upper-shelf welds, (7) irradiation effects in a commercial low upper-shelf weld, (8) microstructural analysis of irradiation effects, (9) in-service aged material evaluations, (10) correlation monitor materials, (11) special technical assistance, (12) JPDR steel examination, (13) technical assistance for JCCCNRS Working Groups 3 and 12, and (14) additional requirements for materials. This report provides an overview of the activities within each of these task from April through September 1995