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Swiss nuclear power and the case for long-term operation
Designed for 40 years but built to last far longer, Switzerland’s nuclear power plants have all entered long-term operation. Yet age alone says little about safety or performance. Through continuous upgrades, strict regulatory oversight, and extensive aging management, the country’s reactors are being prepared for decades of continued operation, in line with international practice.
R. L. Simons, W. N. McElroy, L. D. Blackburn
Nuclear Technology | Volume 16 | Number 1 | October 1972 | Pages 14-24
Technical Paper | Reactor Materials Performance / Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT72-A31171
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Damage functions were determined for Type 304 stainless-steel mechanical property changes in yield strength and total elongation for an irradiation and test temperature of ∼480°C. The damage functions correlate the spectral effect of test reactor neutron induced changes in mechanical properties for subsequent use in predicting fluence limits for specified property level changes for reactor design studies. By propagating errors in the damage function analysis, a conservative lower bound fluence limit may be estimated. Results show that the yield strength damage function is nearly the same as the displacement cross section used as the first approximation to the damage function. The total elongation damage function shows a high energy, >4 MeV, and low energy, <10−3 MeV, enhancement of damage. Consequently, it is necessary to consider neutrons of all energies when correlating both fast and thermal test reactor data.