Application of environmentally-corrected fatigue curves to nuclear power plant components

Recent test data indicate that the effects of the light water reactor (LWR) environment could significantly reduce the fatigue resistance of materials used in the reactor coolant pressure boundary components of operating nuclear power plants. Argonne National Laboratory has developed interim fatigue curves based on test data simulating LWR conditions, and published them in NUREG/CR-5999. In order to assess the significance of these interim fatigue curves, fatigue evaluations of a sample of the components in the reactor coolant pressure boundary of LWRs were performed. The sample consists of components from facilities designed by each of the four US nuclear steam supply system vendors. For each facility, six locations were studied including two locations on the reactor pressure vessel. In addition, there are older vintage plants where components of the reactor coolant pressure boundary were designed to codes that did not require an explicit fatigue analysis of the components. In order to assess the fatigue resistance of the older vintage plants, an evaluation was also conducted on selected components of three of these plants. This paper discusses the insights gained from the application of the interim fatigue curves to components of seven operating nuclear power plants.