Brittle fracture initiation in decommissioned boiling water reactor pressure vessel head weld

The brittle fracture initiation behavior and fracture toughness in the ductile-to-brittle transition region for a thermally-aged weld metal of a decommissioned reactor pressure vessel head (in operation at 288 °C for 23 effective full power years) and in the non-aged reference condition were investigated. The results show that brittle fracture initiated primarily from non-metallic inclusions. The correlation between fracture toughness and brittle fracture initiation type (inclusion debonding or breakage), initiator size, initiation location (as-welded or re-heated regions in the weld metal) were analysed. Despite that thermal ageing does not affect significantly the fracture toughness, it could promote the debonding as a brittle fracture primary initiation type. The influence of debonded inclusion on the evolution of cumulative damage and brittle fracture initiation was assessed using crystal plasticity modelling.