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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.
Azar P. Majidi, Michael A. Streicher
Nuclear Technology | Volume 75 | Number 3 | December 1986 | Pages 356-369
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT86-A33848
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Three different electrochemical reactivation tests are compared with etch structures produced in the electrolytic oxalic acid etch test. These nondestructive tests are needed to evaluate welded stainless steel pipes and other plant equipment for susceptibility to intergranular attack. Sensitization associated with precipitates of chromium carbides at grain boundaries can make these materials subject to intergranular attack in acids and, in particular, to intergranular stress corrosion cracking in high-temperature (289°C) water on boiling water nuclear reactor power plants. In the first of the two older reactivation tests, sensitization is detected by the electrical charge generated during reactivation. In the second, it is measured by the ratio of maximum currents generated by a prior anodic loop and the reactivation loop. A third, simpler reactivation method based on a measurement of the maximum current generated during reactivation is proposed. If the objective of the field tests, which are to be carried out with portable equipment, is to distinguish between nonsensitized and sensitized material, this can be accomplished most simply, most rapidly, and at lowest cost by an evaluation of oxalic acid etch structures.