Fracture mechanics characterisation of the beltline welding seam of the decommissioned WWER-440 reactor pressure vessels of nuclear power plant Greifswald Unit 4

The paper presents data measured for trepans sampled from decommissioned WWER-440 reactor pressure vessel of the NPP Greifswald Unit 4 the main focus being on fracture toughness characterisation according to test standard ASTM E1921. Large variation of the evaluated reference temperature values T0 across the wall of the multilayer beltline welding seam was observed. Generally, the through wall variation of the T0-values does not follow the ductile-to-brittle transition temperature (TT) shift predicted by the Russian code and in fact the non-fluence dependent variation of the T0-values is comparable to the variation predicted by the code. Metallographic investigations show that the T0-values measured with TS oriented Charpy size SE(B) specimens from different thickness locations of the multilayer welding seams strongly depend on the metallographic structure at the specimen crack tip. The RPV integrity is accessed taking into account a pressurised thermal shock scenario.