The Light Water Reactor-Pressure Vessel Surveillance Dosimetry Improvement Program of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has irradiated, in a pressure vessel wall/thermal shield mock up facility, mechanical test specimens of the ASTM A302-B correlation monitor reference plate and the A533-B Plate 03 from the Heavy Section Steel Technology Program. This report presents Charpy-V, compact tension, and tension test results from simultaneous irradiations in simulated surveillance capsule and through-vessel-wall locations. The investigation is part of a broad NRC effort developing key neutron physics-dosimetry-metallurgy correlations for use in making highly accurate projections of radiation-induced embrittlement to reactor vessels.

Irradiation in the surveillance capsule location was found to reproduce reasonably well the irradiation effect to the vessel inner surface and quarter thickness positions. The toughness gradient observed between in-wall locations after irradiation was small for both materials; the difference between transition temperatures for wall surface versus mid-thickness locations was 31°C or less, independent of the test method used. The adjustment of the ASME lower bound, that is, dynamic, K_IR toughness curve by the radiation-induced elevation of the Charpy-V 41-J or the compact specimen 100 MPa√m temperature was conservative when compared against static toughness data. The elevation of the Charpy-V (C_v) curve (41-J index) by irradiation frequently did not provide a conservative estimate of the temperature elevation defined by fracture toughness tests (100 MPa√m index); on the other hand, correction of the fracture toughness data for the lack of test specimen constraint (β_Ic correction) did result in a transition temperature elevation less than the 41-J elevation, in most cases.