Reconstitution Process by Stud Welding for the Surveillance Program in Mexico

Abstract

Abstract This paper describes the development of the stud welding process for reconstitution of Charpy specimens for the surveillance program at the Mexican nuclear power plants. The surveillance program objective is to evaluate in advance the degree of embrittlement of the vessel over its service life. However, the number of capsules with test specimens was only foreseen for the plant’s design lifetime, and, at present, nuclear power plants can take measures that extend their lifetime by up to 20 additional years; hence the importance of this test material, which stores specific information on accumulated damage due to irradiation. This material needs to be reused after being destructively tested and, hence, there is the need to develop a reconstitution process to obtain other reconstructed Charpy specimens. These will be reinserted into the reactor both for the surveillance program and potential plant life extension.