Improvement of load control unit in material irradiation test system (Contract research)

Okada, Yuji ; Magome, Hirokatsu; Matsui, Yoshinori 

Material irradiation test system had been newly installed in JMTR (Japan Materials Testing Reactor) with taking 5 years which was from 2008 through 2013. The aim of material irradiation test system is to conduct IASCC (Irradiation Assisted Stress Corrosion Cracking) evaluation study. This system is mainly consist of water control unit, which can simulate elevated temperature and pressure of the light water reactor environment in the reactor, and load control unit, which can perform the crack propagation examination under irradiation. This load control unit gives a load to CT (Compact Tension) specimen, and perform the crack propagation examination. The principle of loading to CT specimen is using pressure difference between pressure generated by high temperature and high pressure water by water control unit in capsule and pressure generated by load gas pressure supplied by helium gas cylinder in bellows installed in load control unit. In 2013, the commissioning of material irradiation test system was carried out for adjustment. During this commissioning, the correlation between the differential pressure in load control unit and the load was confirmed by using the test container connected to load control unit with load cell. From the results of commissioning, the problem, which the load change speeds at loading and unloading were different due to different pressure change speeds by the piping resistance performance in the periodic loading test in which load from minimum to maximum repeatedly applied, was confirmed. This report summarizes the problem of load change speed due to the piping resistance performance, which was confirmed in 2013, the improvement and performance test of load control unit for solving the problem described above, which were carried out from 2014 to 2015, and operating procedure.