Experiments simulating IGSCC under irradiation in BWR

Tsukada, Takashi ; Kaji, Yoshiyuki  ; Ugachi, Hirokazu ; Miwa, Yukio; Nakano, Junichi; Sato, Tomonori  ; Uchida, Shunsuke

Since the intergranular stress corrosion cracking (IGSCC) has been a major issue of degradation and failure of structural materials in the boiling water reactors (BWRs), various types of experiments were carried out to investigate IGSCC behavior under the environmental conditions simulated those in BWR. This paper describes a summary of the relevant experimental techniques and the experiences of two types of experiments performed by the authors. For the in-pile SCC experiments, IGSCC crack growth rates were obtained as a function of stress intensity factor in high temperature water. On the other hand, SCC and corrosion tests were performed on un-irradiated specimens in high temperature water by injecting hydrogen peroxide, HO to simulate water radiolysis condition. In order to understand IGSCC behavior under irradiation in the reactor core from a mechanistic viewpoint, combinations of various types of experiments are essentially required.