Characterization of the Initial State of the Reactor Pressure Vessel Steels of the Rheinsberg Irradiation Programme - Survey on Mechanical Testing including Fracture Mechanics and Fluence Investigation in the Research Centre Rossendorf

A German/Russian irradiation programme was performed in the high flux irradiation channels of the PWR VVER-2 Rheinsberg from 1984 to 1987. Within the programme Charpy-V-, COD-, 0,5-CT-, X-CT- and 1-CT specimens of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steels 15Kh2MFA and 15Kh2NMFA(A) and RPV weld metal 10KhMFT, 10Kh2MFA(U) and 10KhNMA(A) were irradiated. These materials are used in the pressurized water reactor of Russian type VVER-440 and VVER-1000. The irradiation of one series of experiments took one year. In this paper the unirradiated initial state of the material is characterized. The mechanical properties measured at different temperatures include instrumented Charpy-V notch- and quasistatic fracture toughness data. Furthermore the neutronfluence of the specimens were calculated in dependence of the position in the high flux irradiation channels of the PWR VVER-2 Rheinsberg.