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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.
E. K. Opperman, J. L. Straalsund, G. L. Wire, R. H. Howell
Nuclear Technology | Volume 42 | Number 1 | January 1979 | Pages 71-81
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT79-A32163
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An apparatus was developed that utilizes light ions to simulate the effect of a fusion reactor first wall environment on the creep properties of metals and alloys. The creep apparatus includes a wire specimen stressed in the torsional mode. Rotation or strain is measured by an optically coupled photocell tracking system. Temperature control of the specimen is obtained by varying the temperature of flowing helium passing perpendicularly across the specimen. The initial study involved bombarding a 20% cold-worked AISI Type 316 stainless-steel specimen at 400°C with 14.8-MeV protons at a beam intensity of ∼10 µA/cm2 or a displacement rate of ∼3.4 × 10−7 dpa/s. The accelerator was operated intermittently to accumulate 130 h of beam time and a total dose of ∼0.2 dpa. Strain rates on the order of 5 × 10−4% shear strain per hour were observed during irradiation, whereas negligible strain rates were observed when the accelerator was turned off. On a dpa basis, proton-induced irradiation creep rates were approximately one order of magnitude higher than those observed in fast reactor neutron irradiations of the same materials under similar conditions.