Reactor pressure vessel characteristics

Abstract This chapter describes the surveillance database of the Western pressurized water reactor (PWR) reactor pressure vessel (RPV) beltline materials obtained from US, French and Japanese nuclear power plants (NPPs) and those from other countries, together with an overview of the characteristics of PWR RPVs. Trends of surveillance data which will be obtained in the near future and the possibility of new data from reconstituted and miniature specimen techniques are presented. 

Characteristics of pressurized water reactor (PWR) reactor pressure vessel (RPV) embrittlement... 

The total height of the RPV is 10.7m. Specific design characteristics for the QP300 reactor pressure vessel are given in the General Design Data (in Section 6.4). 

The transport and release behavior of the fission products depends not only on the nature and the timing of the accident phenomena but also on details of the reactor design. The inclusion of detailed design information, for example, the characteristics of the upper plenum of the reactor pressure vessel, as well as the treatment of some of the engineered safety features (e. g. containment sprays, suppression pools) will not only provide a better foundation for estimating radionuclide release, but also will result in a better understanding of the accident sequence and of the results of radionuclide behavior. 

The geometric characteristics of some interesting viscoelastic problems have special symmetries. For example, spherical shells have wide applications in pressure vessels, heat exchangers, and nuclear reactors. Loading of these structures can occur not only in accidental conditions but also in normal situations, e.g., during overpressurization. These spherical shells are radially symmetrical. 

In 1982, the Research Center Jiilich presented the conceptual design of a 50 MW(th) nuclear process heat plant with a pebble-bed HTGR, named AVR-II, for which a safety-related study has been conducted [29]. Its characteristic features are a slim steel pressure vessel, no separate decay heat removal system, shutdown and control system via reflector rods, surface cooling system, and a simplified containment. The safety of the reactor is principally based on passive system feamres. 

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