INCEFA-PLUS (Increasing safety in NPPs by Covering gaps in Environmental Fatigue Assessment)

Abstract

INCEFA-PLUS is a European Project (funded by the European Commission HORIZON2020 program) that started in July 2015 and lasts five years (until June 2020). The project consists of 16 members from all over Europe and has as its main goal to guarantee safety in operations of Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) by delivering experimental data to support the development of improved environmental fatigue assessment guidelines. The issues that are being studied (experimentally) are those of common interests to all participants: the effects of mean strain/stress, hold time, strain amplitude and surface finish on the fatigue performance of austenitic stainless steels in the LWR (Light Water Reactor) environment. Within the framework of the CEN (European Committee for Standardization) workshop FATEDA, the consortium developed a fatigue data format. This data format was used in an online environmental fatigue database, where the experimental data are made available for all participants. Later in the project, it is intended to develop an environmental fatigue assessment procedure on the basis of this data. The paper will introduce the project and describe phase one (of three) testing, including conditions such as surface finish and hold time. The plans that are being made for phase two testing will be detailed. The materials used in the tests, the surface finish data and some experimental results for phase one will be presented, together with a summary of the INCEFA-PLUS testing protocol. Finally, a review of existing assessment methodologies and a summary of dissemination activities will be provided.