RPV-1: A Virtual Test Reactor to simulate irradiation effects in light water reactor pressure vessel steels

Many key components in commercial nuclear reactors are subject to neutron irradiation which modifies their mechanical properties. So far, the prediction of the in-service behavior and the lifetime of these components has required irradiations in so-called ‘Experimental Test Reactors’. This predomina...

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Veröffentlicht in:Journal of nuclear materials Jg. 340; H. 2-3; S. 125 - 148
Hauptverfasser: Jumel, Stéphanie, Van-Duysen, Jean Claude
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 15.04.2005
Elsevier
Schlagworte:
Applied sciences
Controled nuclear fusion plants
Energy
Energy. Thermal use of fuels
Exact sciences and technology
Fission nuclear power plants
Fuels
Installations for energy generation and conversion: thermal and electrical energy
Nuclear fuels
T0100
S0900
M0200
R0200
R0300
Lifetime
Pressure effect
Nuclear reactor component
Stainless steel
Database
Mechanical properties
Pressure vessel
Neutron irradiation
Reactor pressure vessel
Light water reactor
Nuclear reactor
ISSN:0022-3115, 1873-4820
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Zusammenfassung:Many key components in commercial nuclear reactors are subject to neutron irradiation which modifies their mechanical properties. So far, the prediction of the in-service behavior and the lifetime of these components has required irradiations in so-called ‘Experimental Test Reactors’. This predominantly empirical approach can now be supplemented by the development of physically based computer tools to simulate irradiation effects numerically. The devising of such tools, also called Virtual Test Reactors (VTRs), started in the framework of the REVE Project (REactor for Virtual Experiments). This project is a joint effort among Europe, the United States and Japan aimed at building VTRs able to simulate irradiation effects in pressure vessel steels and internal structures of LWRs. The European team has already built a first VTR, called RPV-1, devised for pressure vessel steels. Its inputs and outputs are similar to those of experimental irradiation programs carried out to assess the in-service behavior of reactor pressure vessels. RPV-1 is made of five codes and two databases which are linked up so as to receive, treat and/or convey data. A user friendly Python interface eases the running of the simulations and the visualization of the results. RPV-1 is sensitive to its inputs (neutron spectrum, temperature,…) and provides results in conformity with experimental ones. The iterative improvement of RPV-1 has been started by the comparison of simulation results with the database of the IVAR experimental program led by the University of California Santa Barbara. These first successes led 40 European organizations to start developing RPV-2, an advanced version of RPV-1, as well as INTERN-1, a VTR devised to simulate irradiation effects in stainless steels, in a large effort (the PERFECT project) supported by the European Commission in the framework of the 6th Framework Program.
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ISSN:0022-3115
1873-4820
DOI:10.1016/j.jnucmat.2004.10.131