ASSESSMENT OF POSSIBILITY OF PRIMARY WATER STRESS CORROSION CRACKING OCCURRENCE BASED ON RESIDUAL STRESS ANALYSIS IN PRESSURIZER SAFETY NOZZLE OF NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

Primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC) is a major safety concern in the nuclear power industry worldwide. PWSCC is known to initiate only in the condition in which sufficiently high tensile stress is applied to alloy 600 tube material or alloy 82/182 weld material in pressurized water reactor operating environments. However, it is still uncertain how much tensile stress is re-quired to generate PWSCC or what causes such high tensile stress. This study was performed to pre-dict the magnitude of weld residual stress and operating stress and compare it with previous experi-mental results for PWSCC initiation. For the study, a pressurizer safety nozzle was selected because it is reported to be vulnerable to PWSCC in overseas plants. The assessment was conducted by nu-merical analysis. Before performing stress analysis for plant conditions, a preliminary mock-up ana-lysis was done. The result of the preliminary analysis was validated by residual stress measurement in the mock-up. After verification of the analysis methodology, an analysis under plant conditions was conducted. The analysis results show that the stress level is not high enough to initiate PWSCC. If a plant is properly welded and operated, PWSCC is not likely to occur in the pressurizer safety nozzle.