Empowering nuclear engineers to design and operate nuclear reactor plant safely using advanced structural integrity methods.

Narrative

The safe design and operation of nuclear reactor plant requires an understanding of the structural integrity of manufactured components. The margins of safety are influenced by changes in material properties and the development of damage, e.g. due to corrosion, during service. In the UK nuclear industry, structural integrity assessments are performed using the nuclear industry standard document referred to as R6. Additions or changes to R6 impact safety cases for nuclear components and are carefully controlled by EDF Energy through expert peer review and quality control processes.

Research has been supported by the Research Councils UK alongside funding from industrial partners including EDF Energy, Jacobs, and Rolls-Royce. These relationships have ensured that research is focused on key aspects of structural integrity for nuclear plant and that industrial engineers fully understand and can exploit the research undertaken.

The structural integrity research outputs have navigated the industrial peer review processes and been included in R6, empowering nuclear engineers to apply these advances in the design, manufacture, and operation of nuclear reactor plant. Key areas of research include advanced manufacturing technology, weld residual stress effects on defect behaviour, and computer simulation of crack growth by tearing-fatigue, ductile, and cleavage fracture mechanisms from blunt and sharp defects.

The development of R6 is driven by the needs of the UK nuclear industry but it is a generic document used worldwide in a range of industries and has informed development of other codes such as the British Standard BS7910 and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)/American Petroleum Industry Fitness-For-Service document FFS-1. Therefore, the impact of this research on R6 has led to a wide impact on structural integrity assessments.

Impact date	2015 → 2023
Category of impact	Environmental, Economic, Policy
Impact level	Benefit