The impact of material and design criteria on the assessment of negligible creep

Two of the proposed High Temperature Gas Reactors (HTGRs) under consideration for a demonstration plant have the design object of avoiding creep effects during normal operation. The goal of negligible creep could have different interpretations depending upon what failure modes are considered and associated criteria for avoiding the effects of creep. This paper addresses the criteria for negligible creep in Subsection NH of Section III of the ASME B&PV Code, other international design codes and some currently suggested criteria modifications and their impact on permissible operating temperatures for various reactor pressure vessel materials. There are a number of other considerations for the selection of vessel material besides avoiding creep effects. Of particular interest for this review are (1) the material's allowable stress level and impact on wall thickness (the goal being to minimize required wall thickness) and (2) ASME Code approval (inclusion as a permitted material in the relevant Section and Subsection of interest) to expedite regulatory review and approval. The application of negligible creep criteria to two of the candidate materials, SA533 and Mod 9Cr-1Mo, and to a potential alternate, normalized and tempered 21/4 Cr-1Mo, are illustrated and the relative advantages and disadvantages are discussed.