METHOD OF SEALING NUCLEAR REACTOR FUEL ELEMENTS HAVING A CASING MADE OF HIGH-CHROMIUM STEEL

Abstract

The invention relates to nuclear power and can be used in manufacturing of fuel elements for nuclear reactors. A method of sealing nuclear reactor fuel elements is proposed comprising welding one end of a casing with a plug, both of high-chromium steel, loading the fuel element with fuel, and welding a second plug to another end of the casing. The casing is of a high-chromium ferrite-martensite steel and the plug is of a high-chromium ferrite steel. Argon arc welding is carried out at a volume ratio of the materials of the casing and the plug contributing to formation of the metal of the weld seam which allows formation of a ferrite phase in said metal, wherein the ratio is: V.sub.1/V.sub.2>18, where V.sub.1 is the volume of ferrite material and V.sub.2 is the volume of ferrite-martensite material. Argon arc welding is carried out at a current of 14-20 A, a speed of 12-15 m/h, an arc voltage of 9-10 W and an argon flow rate of 7-8 1/min. This method provides for the desired quality of the welded joins and simplifies the fuel element manufacturing process.

Claims

1. A method of sealing nuclear reactor fuel elements, comprising welding one end of a casing to a plug, both comprised of high-chromium steel, loading the fuel element with fuel, and welding a second plug to another end of the casing, characterized in that the casing is comprised of a high-chromium ferrite-martensite steel and the plug is comprised of a high-chromium ferrite steel, argon arc welding is carried out at a volume ratio of the materials of the casing and the plug contributing to the formation of the metal of the weld seam which allows formation of a ferrite phase in said metal, wherein the ratio is:
V.sub.1/V.sub.20.18, where: V.sub.i is the volume of ferrite material; V.sub.2 is the volume of ferrite-martensite material.

2. The method of claim 1, characterized in that the argon arc welding is carried out at a current of 14-20 A, a speed of 12-15 m/h, an arc voltage of 9-10 W and an argon flow rate of 7-8 l/min.

Description

EXAMPLE

[0016] The method of sealing nuclear reactor fuel elements comprises welding one end of a casing to a plug, both comprised of high-chromium steel, loading the fuel element with fuel, and welding a second plug to another end of the casing.

[0017] Modeling the welding process at different process variables, such as a shoulder width a, a casing thickness , and a predetermined penetration depth b, was carried out on a geometrically flat model of the weld joint assembly before and after welding, followed by determining the phases formed in the weld joint by means of structural analysis, which allows calculating ratio of the areas of steels of various grades participating in forming the joint metal, to obtain the ferrite phase therein.

[0018] The resulting surface areas of materials of various grade were determined in slices of weld joints taking into account their fractions in the formed joint metal and was conducted by means of the computer program JpSquare (LProSoft), and the phase formed in the weld joint metal was determined by structural analysis. The volume of the phase formed in the joint metal was proportional to the area of the metal in the geometrical flat model of the weld joint assembly. The ratio of material volumes for the casing and the plug required to form the ferrite phase in the joint metal is determined on the basis of the calculated area of the materials to be coupled.

V.sub.1/V.sub.20.18,

where: V.sub.1 is the volume of ferrite material; [0019] V.sub.2 is the volume of ferrite-martensite material.

[0020] The method of sealing is carried out by argon-arc welding with the use of a casing made of ferrite-martensite steel of the EP-823 grade with a diameter of 9.3 mm having a wall thickness of 0.5 mm

[0021] Ferrite steel of 05X18C2BAIO (05Cr18Si2WVNAI) grade was used for the plug, the shoulder width was 0.8 mm, its diameter corresponded to the casing diameter (see Figure).

[0022] The chemical composition of steels used for welding is shown in Table 1.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Chemical composition of the welded materials. Elements content, wt % Steel Cr Si W Nb Wo V Mn Al Ni N C Ce EP-823 10-12 1.1-1.3 0.3 0.3 0.6-0.9 0.2-0.4 0.5-0.8 0.5-0.8 0.05 0.14-0.18 05X18C2MBA 18.0 1.7 0.6 0.2 0.7 0.3 0.1 0.2 0.04 0.01 (05Cr18Si2MoWVN Al)

[0023] Mechanical characteristics of the steels are shown in Table 2.

TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Mechanical characteristics of the welded material Mechanical characteristics Mechanical characteristics at at 2 C. 650 C. Steel .sub.V, MPa .sub.0.2, MPa , % .sub.V, MPa .sub.0.2, MPa , % EP-823 829 672 20 294 265 48 05X18C2MBA 600 482 9 200 186 40 (05Cr18Si2MoWVNAl)

[0024] The conducted experiments with the steel 0518C2MBAIO (05Cr18Si2MoWVNAI) demonstrated its high mechanical performance and perspective corrosion resistance in lead coolant (RU Patent 2238345 Steel for core fuel elements of lead-coolant nuclear reactors/Velyuhanov V. P., Zelenskiy G. K., Ioltuhovskiy A. G., Leontieva-Smirnova M. V., Mitin V. S., Sokolov N. B., Rusanov A. E., Troyanov V. M.; the applicant and the patent holderRussian Federation represented by Federal Agency on Atomic Energy, SSC VNIINM.; publ. Dec. 20, 2004.)

[0025] The mode of welding the casing made of steel EP-823 with the plug made of steel 05X18C2MBAIO (05Cr18Si2MoWVNAI): [0026] welding current 15A, [0027] welding velocity 14 m/h, [0028] arc voltage 9 V, [0029] argon rate 8 l/min

[0030] Following the technology described above, fuel element simulators were made.

[0031] Metallographic researches of the weld joints for selected welding modes have shown that the volume ratios of the ferrite phase to the ferrite-martensite phase is from 0.46 to 0.51.

[0032] Mechanical strength tests have shown that the rupture of the samples occurs across the casing of fuel element simulators. Strength limit of the casing is 818 MPa.

[0033] Weld joints have been tested for corrosion in lead coolant for 4000 hours. It has been found that the corrosion resistance of weld joints remains at the level of corrosion resistance of the fuel casing.

[0034] The tests of the weld joints for gas-tightness carried out using a helium leak detector by a mass spectroscopic method at a room temperature have shown that all joints are hermetically sealed.

[0035] The use of the inventive method of sealing fuel elements having a casing made of high-chromium steel allows to improve the quality of the weld joint between the casing and the plug and to greatly simplify sealing technology.