The Role of Water Chemistry for Environmentally Assisted Cracking in Low-Alloy Reactor Pressure Vessel and Piping Steels under Boiling Water Reactor Conditions

Abstract

The environmentally assisted initiation and propagation of cracks in structural materials is one of the most important degradation and ageing mechanisms in light water reactors (LWR) and may seriously affect plant availability and economics. In the first part of this paper a short general introduction on environmentally assisted cracking (EAC) and its significance for LWR is given. Then the important role of water chemistry control in reducing the EAC risk in LWR is illustrated by current research results about the effect of chloride transients and hydrogen water chemistry on the EAC crack growth behaviour of low-alloy reactor pressure vessel and piping steels under boiling water reactor conditions.