Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Environmental Degradation of Materials in Nuclear Power System Water Reactors Edited by T.R.

R. Allen, P.J. King, and L. Nelson TMS (The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society), 2005

IRRADIATION EFFECTS IN A HIGHLY IRRADIATED COLD WORKED STAINLESS STEEL REMOVED FROM A COMMERCIAL PWR
Joyce Conermann, Regis Shogan, Koji Fujimoto, Toshio Yonezawa, Yoichiro Yamaguchi3 Westinghouse Electric Company; 1332 Beulah Rd.; Pittsburgh, PA 15235, USA Mitisubishi Heavy Industries, LTD.; 2-1-1, Shinhama, Arai-cho, Takasago-city, Hyogo Pref., 676-6868, JAPAN 3 Nuclear Development Corporation; 622-12, Funaishikawa, Tokaimura, Ibaraki Pref., 319-1111, JAPAN Keywords: IASCC, Swelling, PWR, Stainless Steel Abstract Mechanical and corrosion properties were measured on a cold worked, Type 316 stainless steel tube removed from the core of a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) after 23 years of service. Neutron exposure levels of the material ranged from near 0 to 65 dpa (~4.5x1022 n/cm2, E>1 MeV) and irradiation temperatures from 290 to 320C. As expected, the strength of the material increased and the ductility decreased with irradiation. Slow strain rate and stressed O-ring crack initiation tests in PWR water were used to determine the susceptibility of the material to irradiation assisted stress corrosion cracking (IASCC). The data indicate that IASCC susceptibility may accelerate above 20 dpa and saturate after 60 dpa. At the highest fluence, limited intergranular failure was observed on the fracture surface of a specimen slow strain rate tested in inert gas. Material The program material was taken from a bottom mounted instrument (BMI, a.k.a. flux thimble) tube that was exposed in the center of a PWR core for ~23 years. The tube outside diameter was 7.65 mm and the wall thickness was 1.22 mm. The reported chemistry of this material is shown in Table I along with specification values for Type 316 SS. The process specification for this material requires ~10% to 12% cold work after the final anneal to produce a yield strength between 480 and 620 MPa and a UTS of > 690 MPa. Gamma spectroscopy was performed on the flux thimble, and from those results, a specimen removal plan was developed. The plan included material from six locations on the thimble. Table II shows the specimen blank cutting locations. These specimen locations were selected to allow examination of differences in material fluence and irradiation temperature combinations on the material properties. One location outside the core was selected to represent unirradiated material although the fluence at this location could have been as high as 0.01 dpa. Experimental Procedures Tensile Tests Subsize, pin loaded tensile test specimens (Figure 1) were machined from the flux thimble tubes. The design allowed three specimens to be machined from around the circumference of a thimble section. All of the specimens were machined so that their longitudinal axis was parallel to the longitudinal axis of the tube. Tensile tests were performed by Studsvik Nuclear and Westinghouse and were per applicable portions of ASTM Specification E8 and E21. Tests were conducted in air, at 21, 320 and 340C at a strain rate of 5 x 10-3/min. The yield load, ultimate load, total elongation and uniform elongation were determined directly from the load-extension curve. The effective gauge length was taken as the reduced section of the specimen. The uniform elongation was calculated as the elongation to maximum load. Corrosion Testing Two types of corrosion tests were performed; slow strain rate tensile (SSRT) and constant load crack initiation tests (O-ring testing). SSRT tests are used in corrosion testing to accelerate the failure of susceptible materials to reasonable test times. Results are comparative between different materials or states within a 277

Introduction The assessment of irradiation effects in pressurized water reactor (PWR) internal materials has been limited by a lack of access to high fluence materials for testing. While the end of extended life fluence for reactor internal materials may exceed 150 dpa (displacement per atom), the highest fluence PWR irradiated material that has been tested to date was at the 35 dpa exposure level. While materials irradiated to higher fluences in test reactors have been investigated, the data indicate that there may be a significant difference between corrosion related irradiation effects after PWR versus test reactor irradiation [1,2]. At fluences exceeding 10 dpa the stainless steels used in PWR reactor internals construction will have already undergone significant embrittlement and may become susceptible to irradiation assisted stress corrosion cracking (IASCC). A type 316 stainless steel tube with fluences ranging from 0 to 65 dpa became available. The material was a Type 316 cold worked stainless steel, bottom mounted instrument (BMI, a.k.a. flux thimble) tube that was exposed in the center of a PWR core for ~23 years. A test program to measure mechanical and corrosion properties of an irradiated material over a wide fluence range was designed based upon the use of this piece of material. The program included tensile testing, environmental slow strain rate tensile testing (SSRT), and environmental stressed O-ring crack initiation testing.

Table I. Chemical Composition Material

C
0.045 <0.08

Flux Thimble 316CW Nominal 316 SS

Si 0.43 1.0 max

Mn
1.70 <2.0

Chemical composition (wt. %) P S Ni

0.026 <0.040 0.01 <0.030 13.3 11.0-14.0

Cr
17.4 16.0-18.0

Mo
2.69 2.0-3.0

Fe
Bal. -

Table II. Specimen Blank Cutting Locations Estimated Dose Location Irradiation (dpa) Temperature Top transition 17 325 C Top transition 35 325 C ~0.8 meter from top 65 320 C of core ~1 meter from bottom 61 295 C of core Bottom transition 35 290 C Below core 0 290 C material. In this study the SSRT test results were evaluated by comparing the extent of intergranular failure in the fracture morphology. SSRT testing has been shown to be useful for determining thresholds such as the fluence threshold for IASCC and in comparing the resistance to IASCC of different materials [3]. Constant load crack initiation testing (O-ring testing) involves holding sections of the flux thimble tube under a load in the PWR environment until failure occurs. The time to failure is recorded and is considered to be the time to crack initiation since IASCC cracks are known to grow quickly; the stress intensity increases as the crack grows through the small thickness of the specimen wall. The O-ring type test is useful because it allows a high surface stress region to be tested without putting the remainder of the specimen under a high stress where overload failure can occur. Unless the material is very susceptible to IASCC, a stress at or above the yield stress may be required for failure to occur. This is a problem with tensile type specimens as the irradiated yield and ultimate strengths are nearly the same; i.e. the material exhibits little to no strain hardening. In the O-ring test the surface stress can be adjusted by changing the applied stress and/or the length of the specimen. O-rings are preferred to the more common C-ring configuration because the loads that would be used for C-ring testing on these small diameter tubes would be very low and in the range of fluctuations in the system active loading arrangement. SSRT testing The design of the SSRT specimen was the same as that of the tensile specimen shown in Figure 1. Specimens were tested with the outside and inside diameter surfaces as-received from the plant. The SSRT tests were performed in a shielded autoclave with two parallel load application systems allowing two specimens to be tested at one time. The test stand was specifically designed to allow for mounting of the specimen in the load frame inside of a hot cell. However, once loading was completed, the equipment assembly and the testing were conducted outside of the hot cell. 278

Figure 1. Tensile and SSRT specimen design. Slow strain rate tests were performed in an inert gas environment and in a PWR environment. A positive pressure of argon gas was maintained in the test chamber for the inert gas tests. PWR environment tests were performed in simulated PWR water, which is made up from deionized water with the following additions: H3BO3 - ~ 1000 ppm as B LiOH - ~2 ppm as Li Dissolved hydrogen - ~30 cm/kg The following contaminants are controlled: Chlorine - < 30 ppb Fluorine - < 30 ppb Dissolved oxygen - < 5 ppb pH - ~6.9 at room temperature Conductivity of the DI water - <0.3s/cm Total dissolved solids (TDS) - <0.2 ppm Dissolved silica - <0.1 ppm All specimens were strained at a maximum constant extension -7 rate of 1x10 mm/mm of effective gauge length per second. Water flowed through the system at a rate of 100 to 200 ml/hr during the test. Constant Load Testing The O-ring exposure tests were conducted in a shielded autoclave in the same PWR water environment that was used for the SSRT

testing. Tests were conducted at 340C. The O-ring test facility has four pull rods extending through the autoclave head. Each pull rod connects to a loading manifold which can accommodate up to six specimens. Loads on the 24 specimens (maximum) are set by varying the pull rod load or the lengths of the individual specimens. Each pull rod is loaded with a Belleville washer spring stack which allows the set load to relax if a specimen should fail. The load can then be reapplied to the remaining specimens or the test stopped for specimen visual examination. Each load train contains a monitored load cell and LVDT position transducer. The specimen applied load is calculated using the ALGOR Finite Element Analysis and Event Simulation program. The FEA results were verified using strain gauged, unirradiated specimens. This configuration produces maximum tensile stresses on the specimen inside diameter under the load application locations and on the outside diameter at 90 degrees to these locations. Thus four areas are in high tensile stress during the test. A typical load train of specimens is shown in Figure 2.

The fracture surfaces of the tensile specimens were examined by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Most of the fracture surfaces were completely ductile dimpled rupture. However, cleavage like fracture features appeared on fracture surfaces of the high fluence material (65 dpa) tested at room temperature. An example of this is shown in Figure 5. The cleavage like features did not appear on the 65 dpa material tested at 320 or 340C. This difference in fracture mode may be due to different

Table III. Tensile Test Results

Test Temperature (C) 21 21 320 320 340 340 21 21 320 320 340 21 21 320 320 340

dpa 0 0 0 0 0 0 33 28 33 28 35 65 65 65 65 65

0.2% Ultimate Tensile Yield Uniform Strength Strength Elongation (Mpa) (MPa) (%) 620 790 17.2 644 788 15.5 539 638 7.3 544 636 7.6 498 604 7.8 514 596 7.2 1013 1202 1.5 1003 1186 1.8 931 1001 0.5 951 1009 0.5 946 954 0.3 988 1158 2.7 1083 1179 1.4 916 998 0.7 957 1000 0.6 929 946 0.3

Total Elongation (%) 33.5 30.4 14.5 15.7 17.3 17 13.7 14.2 6.7 6.8 9 13 14.3 6.9 7 7.8

deformation mechanisms at room temperature and elevated temperatures. Martensite formation during deformation is suggested to be the reason for the cleavage fracture at room temperature [4]. Figure 2. O-ring test assembly. SSRT Test Results Results and Discussion Tensile Test Results The results of tensile tests of the program materials are shown in Table III. Figure 3 shows the tensile properties plotted as a function of fluence. A representative photograph showing a pre and post test tensile specimen can be found in Figure 4. All of the tensile specimens failed in the gauge section. Irradiation greatly increases the strength and reduces the ductility of the material. The yield strength approaches the ultimate strength at high fluence which results in a reduction in the uniform elongation. There is little change in reduction of area of the necked region with irradiation. However, the length of the necked region is reduced which contributes to the reduction in total elongation. Even at the highest fluence and temperature the material still exhibits significant (~7%) total elongation. The trends in the effects of irradiation on the tensile properties are the same at room and elevated temperatures. The extent of embrittlement is greater at 320oC and 340oC than at room temperature. The strengthening and embrittlement effects were found to be similar at the 28 and 64 dpa levels confirming previous findings that the property changes mostly saturate in the 5 to 10 dpa range. The primary results of the SSRT tests are the fracture surface morphologies summarized in Table IV. Fracture morphology was determined using a shielded Amray Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). A SSRT test of a relatively unirradiated portion of the BMI tube from outside the core region served as a control test (Specimen F-2A). This material would have had a very low neutron exposure, estimated at ~0.01 dpa and would have been exposed to a 290oC water environment for 23 years. Figure 6 shows the fracture surface of specimen F-2A. This specimen had several brittle, transgranular cleavage crack initiation sites which initiated before final ductile failure. This behavior is not expected in Type 316 stainless steel and may be an artifact from irradiation despite the low fluence or from the long thermal exposure time. Figure 7 illustrates the fracture surface of the 17 dpa specimen, E-1A, tested in PWR conditions. This specimen failed in the gauge section. The fracture initiated as an intergranular crack and grew intergranularly about half way across the gauge section until a final, dimpled rupture, ductile overload fracture occurred. There was a short mixed fracture mode section between the two areas. PWR water SSRT test specimens which were irradiated to 35 dpa and above fractured in the head to gauge section radiuses or in the grip pin holes of the specimens rather than in the gauge sections.

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1200

1000 0.2% Yield Strength (MPa)

800

600

400

200 21C 320 or 340C 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 Fluence (DPA)

1400 1200 Ultimate Tensile Strength (MPa) 1000 800 600 400 200 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 Fluence (DPA)

21C 320 or 340C

40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 Fluence (DPA) Uniform (21C) Uniform (320 or 340C) Total (21C) Total (320 or 340C)

Figure 5. Fracture face of high fluence tensile specimen (65 dpa) tested at room temperature, illustrating cleavage like areas in the dimpled rupture matrix. These fractures were generally 100% intergranular and indicate the extreme susceptibility of this material to IASCC. A subsequent analysis of the specimen design using finite element analysis showed that a small highly stressed region develops at the pin location early in the test due to the curvature of the specimen head. In a tensile test the gauge section stress would eventually exceed the stress in this region and failure would occur in the gauge section. In the SSRT test, however, this small stressed region in effect becomes a crack initiation test. Because of the longer time required to develop a similar high stress in the gauge section, this pin hole region develops a crack first and the subsequent stress increase and high crack growth rate results in the specimen head failing before the gauge section approaches the yield strength. Fukuya experienced the same specimen head failure in a similar irradiated BMI tube material and was able to modify the specimen design and use head section radius loading to force failure into the gauge section [5]. The SSRT failures occurred after the specimen stress exceeded the yield strength and some plastic deformation had occurred. In Fukuyas study the specimens exhibited near but not 100% intergranularity. In the tensile mode it would be expected that failure would not be fully intergranular since the expected low fracture toughness of irradiated stainless steel would result in a final ductile overload failure when the crack length reached a critical size. The degree of intergranularity would then be influenced by the hardness of the test machine. In the present study the 100% intergranular failures reported are the result of the

% Elongation

Figure 3. Program tensile data vs. fluence.

Pre-Test

Post-test Figure 4. Pre and post test photographs of a representative tensile specimen.

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Table IV. SSRT Test Results

Irradiation Test Specimen Fluence Temperature Temperature Test % % (C) (C) Number (dpa) Environment Intergranular Transgranular Failure Location 320 A-3B 65 340 inert gas 12 0 gauge section 320 A-3C 65 320 inert gas <3 0 gauge section 325 E-1A 17 340 PWR 50 0 gauge section 325 B-1A 35 340 PWR 100 0 near radius 295 C-1A 61 340 PWR 100 0 in head 320 A-3A 65 320 PWR 100 0 in head 320 A-2A 65 340 PWR 100 0 in head 290 D-1A 35 340 PWR 75 0 in head 290 F-2A 0 340 PWR 0 13 gauge section

Figure 6. Fracture surface of Specimen F-2A, 0 dpa, 340oC, PWR showing several transgranular crack initiation sites.

Figure 7. Fracture face of specimen E-1A, 17 dpa, 340C, PWR intergranular features on the fracture face.

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Figure 8. Specimen A-3B tested in an inert gas atmosphere, exhibiting intergranular features on the fracture face mixed with a small amount of dimpled rupture.

bending mode loading once the crack initiates at the pinhole. An overload final fracture does not necessarily occur in bending. Table V. Crack Initiation Test Results SSRT tests were also performed on 65 dpa material at 320 and 340C in dry, inert gas. Figure 8 shows the fracture face of one of the high fluence specimens, A-3B, tested in inert gas at 340C. The fracture faces of these specimens showed 3% and 12% intergranularity respectively. This observation indicates that another mechanical, brittle failure mechanism, possibly unrelated to the stress corrosion mechanism, is also operating in these highly irradiated materials. O-ring Test Results The time to failure of the program crack initiation specimens is given in Table V. Crack initiation time was found to be strongly dependent on irradiation fluence and stress. Above 60 dpa stresses at the yield stress caused failure in less than 12 hours. Even at 65% of the yield stress failure occurred in 2 to 3 days. At 17 dpa failures could be induced only near the yield stress although even here the time to failure was short (52 hrs.). The data indicates that at a given dpa level there may be a lower bound for the stress at which IASCC can occur. Representative SEM photographs of a typical o-ring specimen fracture face are shown in Figure 9. Cracks are found at all four areas of maximum stress. All fractures were found to be nearly 100% intergranular. A very thin layer of ductile overload was found on the surface opposite the initiation site. From the test records it was determined that the cracks typically grew completely through the tube wall thickness in about 1-2 days. Although the data is limited, a proposed plot of applied stress versus time-to-failure for the various neutron exposures examined in this program is shown in Figure 10. From this plot Figure 11 was developed which presents the data in a format that predicts time to failure as a function of stress and fluence. In Figure 11 two predictive curves are shown. In this depiction the upper curve is based on approximately the stresses and fluences for failure in 100 hours and might apply to short term stress increases after 282

dpa 0 17 17 17 17 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 61 61 61 61 65 65 65 65 65

Exposure Test Max time Stress, Time to hrs MPa % of Y.S. Failure, hrs Yery high 3183 No failure 162 17 1311 No failure 498 53 2077 No failure 723 77 3183 No failure 888 94 52 52 158 17 1311 No failure 162 17 1311 No failure 437 46 619 619 444 47 638 638 707 75 41 41 723 76 104 104 880 93 19 19 911 96 24 24 164 18 1311 No failure 594 64 55 55 732 79 115 115 976 105 ~12 ~13 168 18 1311 No failure 312 34 262 No failure 605 65 73 73 749 81 76 76 928 100 ~12 ~13

Figure 9. Fracture surface of a representative O-ring specimen (340C). was stressed to 600 MPa after 40 dpa, failure would be expected in a very short time. The reader should be aware that these predictive curves are based on limited data for one heat of material. They are intended to be illustrative of a methodology that might be applied to crack initiation data for predicting the life of internals components in PWR reactors. The International IASCC Advisory Committee has initiated a new testing program to better quantify this methodology in the future. The dpa axis in Figure 11 can also be translated to a time axis for any given location in the reactor using the neutron flux at that location.

140 120 % of yield stress 100 80 60 40 20 0 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 Time to failure, hrs 65 & 61 dpa 0 dpa 17 dpa

35 dpa

Figure 10. Semi-quantitative plot of the O-ring crack initiation data. 1.

900 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 0 Short term IASCC failure possible Long term IASCC failure possible No IASCC

Summary Saturation in irradiation induced hardening and ductility loss above 10 dpa after PWR irradiation was verified to 65 dpa. Limited ductility (~7%) was retained in tensile tests even at fluences as high as 65 dpa. The uniform elongation was very minimal at high fluences suggesting that the notched tensile strength and fracture toughness may be adversely affected. SSRT data was limited by IASCC failure in the heads of the specimens for material with a fluence of 35 dpa and above. Qualitatively this indicated the high susceptibility of this material to IASCC and the need to consider stress concentrations in analyzing component effects. Cleavage like features appeared in the 65 dpa tensile specimens tested at room temperature. These features may be the result of the formation of martensite during the deformation. It appears that a high fluence is required for this cleavage fracture to occur. At very high fluences, limited intergranular cracking was found in inert gas SSRT tests. This failure mechanism is different than IASCC although it may have the same underlying causes. IASCC crack initiation was induced at stresses as low as 46% of the yield strength at 35 dpa. At higher stresses and fluences cracks could be initiated after a few days of exposure.

2.

Stress, MPa

3.

20

40

60

80

Neutron exposure, dpa

4.

Figure 11. Prediction of IASCC time-to-failure failure versus stress. Failure would be predicted after a significant time above the Long term curve and in a short time above the Short time curve. fluence has accumulated in the material. The lower prediction curve is taken from the lower bound (Figure 10) of stress for which IASCC can occur at a given fluence level. This might represent a stress below which IASCC would never occur even at end of life fluences. A component operating at 600 MPa stress, for example, would be susceptible to IASCC above 20 dpa but would not have a high probability of failure unless held at stress for several months (from Figure 10). However, if this component 283

5.

6.

7.

A methodology was developed for using crack initiation data for predicting IASCC susceptibility in PWR austenitic components as a function of stress, fluence and time. The property changes in this program were correlated with irradiation induced microstructural changes, chemical composition analysis near the grain boundaries and retained gas analysis by Fujimoto et al. [6]. IASCC susceptibility changes did not correlate with grain boundary chemical changes or mechanical property changes. A correlation was suggested with hydrogen and/or helium gas evolution.

6.

8.

K. Fujimoto, et al., Effect of Accelerated Irradiation and Nuclear Transmuted Gas on the IASCC Characteristics for Highly Irradiated Austenitic Stainless Steels, The 12th International Conference on Environmental Degradation of Materials in Nuclear Systems-Water Reactors, edited by TMS (The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society), 2005.

Acknowledgements The authors wish to acknowledge the encouragement and funding for this project by the International IASCC Advisory Committee: Electric Power and Research Institute/Materials Reliability Project representing the US PWR utilities The 5 Japanese PWR utilities: The Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc., Hokkaido Electric Power Co., Inc., Shikoku Electric Power Co., Inc., Kyushu Electric Power Co., Inc., and The Japan Atomic Power Company Tractebel Energy Engineering Nordostschweizerische Kraftwerke ( NOK ) Vattenfall/Ringhals supplied the test material through Studsvik Nuclear. Studsvik Nuclear performed most of the tensile testing. Laboratory testing was carried out by the Westinghouse Electric Co., Science and Technology Department Hot Cell staff, in particular Greg Kustra, Bruce Lingenfelter, and Bob Rees. References 1. R. P. Shogan and T. R. Mager, Susceptibility of Type 316 Stainless Steel to Irradiation Assisted Stress Corrosion Cracking in a PWR Environment, Proceeding of the 10th International Conference on Environmental Degradation of Materials in Nuclear Systems-Water Reactors, NACE, 2001. J. Conermann, et al., Characterization of Bolts Removed from Service in US PWRs, the 10th International Conference on Degradation of Materials in Nuclear Reactors, NACE, 2001. Baffle Former Proceedings of Environmental Systems-Water

2.

3.

J. F. Williams, et al, Microstructural Effects in Austenitic Stainless Steel Materials Irradiated in a Pressurized Water Reactor, Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on Environmental Degradation of Materials in Nuclear Power Systems-Water Reactors, American Nuclear Society, August, 1997. A. Jenssen, and R. Jakobsson, Mechanical Properties, Hardness and Microstructure of a Flux Thimble Irradiated in a PWR, (STUDSVIK/N(K)-02/016, October 2002). K.Fukuya, et al., IASCC Susceptibility and Slow Tensile Properties of Highly-irradiated 316 Stainless Steels, Journal of Nuclear science and Technology, Vol. 41, No. 6, p 673-681, June 2004.

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5.

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Session Name: IASCC I Session Day/Time: Wednesday, 8/17/05, 8:00 amnoon Irradiation Effects in a Highly Irradiated Cold Worked Stainless Steel Removed from a Commercial PWR
Presenter: Joyce Conerman
Name of Person Asking Question: V. Ehrnstain Affiliation of Person Asking Question: VTT, Finland Question: In the SSRT-specimens tested in PWR-water with IG and ductile fast final fracture, was there any other type of fracture morphology between the IG and ductile areas? Response: No, there was no other type of fracture morphology observed between the IG and ductile areas.

Name of Person Asking Question: Martin Widera Affiliation of Person Asking Question: RWE Power Question: Concerning your tensile tests, did you also evaluate the fracture area reduction? And, if yes, what are the approximate values? Response: The fracture area reduction was not evaluated.

Name of Person Asking Question: Raj Pathania Affiliation of Person Asking Question: EPRI Question: You showed an IASCC time to failure-stress-fluence plot based on your tests. Is it consistent with the field experience with cold-worked Type 316SS baffle bolts in PWRs? Response: Data from field experience with col-worked Type 316SS baffle bolts has not yet been compared with the prediction model. However, experimental data generated from testing of irradiated 304SS baffle plates has been consistent with the prediction model (see next comment by Massoud).
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Comment from Jean-Paul Massoud (EDF): Just a comment to confirm that additional experimental data (on SA 304 material) confirms the time to failure diagram.

Name of Person Asking Question: Al Strasser Affiliation of Person Asking Question: Aquarius Services Question: 1) What stresses was the tube exposed to in service? 2) At what temperature were the ductility measurements made? Particularly the <1% uniform elongation? Response: The tube experienced compressive stresses from the pressure difference between the external PWR service environment and the internal nonpressurized environment of the tube. The uniform elongation was less than 1% at test temperatures of 320 and 340C.

Name of Person Asking Question: Gary S. Was Affiliation of Person Asking Question: University of Michigan Question: Intergranular cracking in Ar is very unstable at low to moderate doses, but has been observed more often at high (>30 dpa) doses. Can you speculate on the mechanism by which cracking is occurring in Ar at high dose? Response: Intergranular cracking of high fluence stainless steel tested in inert gas has been observed by others. It is not clear by which mechanism this cracking is occurring. However, it may be related to the high concentration of bubbles along the grain boundaries of the high fluence specimens or perhaps a hydrogen effect.

Name of Person Asking Question: Regis Shogan Affiliation of Person Asking Question: Westinghouse Electric Comments made by co-author to discussion after presentation: The stress vs. ppa to failure curves will also be a function of material variability.

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SSRT tests are valuable in low susceptible (IASCC) materials where high strains are needed to produce failures. Constant load crack initiation tests are useful in more susceptible materials where cracks initiate near or below the yield strength.

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