Measurement of the residual stresses in a PWR Control Rod Drive Mechanism nozzle

Residual stress in the welds that attach Control Rod Drive Mechanism nozzles into the upper head of a PWR reactor vessel can influence the vessel's structural integrity and initiate Primary Water Stress Corrosion Cracking. PWSCC at Alloy 600 CRDM nozzles has caused primary coolant leakage in operating PWRs. We have used Deep Hole Drilling to characterise residual stresses in a PWR vessel head. Measurements of the internal cladding and nozzle attachment weld showed that although modest tensile stresses occur in the cladding, the attachment weld contains tensile residual stresses of yield magnitude. Despite the large dispersion of residual stress data for nozzle attachments of this type, all available data suggest that assuming a residual stress profile bounded by the weld material's yield stress would be conservative for assessment purposes.