The effect of thermal aging on tensile properties of cast stainless steels during service in light water reactors has been evaluated. Tensile data for several experimental and commercial heats of cast stainless steels are presented. Thermal aging increases the tensile strength of these steels. The high-C Mo-bearing CF-8M steels are more susceptible to thermal aging than the Mo-free CF-3 or CF-8 steels. A procedure and correlations are presented for predicting the change in tensile flow and yield stresses and engineering stress-vs.-strain curve of cast stainless steel as a function of time and temperature of service. The tensile properties of aged cast stainless steel are estimated from known material information, i.e., chemical composition and the initial tensile strength of the steel. The correlations described in this report may be used for assessing thermal embrittlement of cast stainless steel components.

Fatigue and environmentally assisted cracking of piping, pressure vessel cladding, and core components in light water reactors are potential concerns to the nuclear industry and regulatory agencies. The degradation processes include intergranular stress corrosion cracking of austenitic stainless steel (SS) piping in boiling water reactors (BWRs), and propagation of fatigue or stress corrosion cracks (which initiate in sensitized SS cladding) into low-alloy ferritic steels in BWR pressure vessels. Crack growth data for wrought and cast austenitic SSs in simulated BWR water, developed at Argonne National Laboratory under US Nuclear Regulatory Commission sponsorship over the past 10 years, have been compiled into a data base along with similar data obtained from the open literature. The data were analyzed to develop corrosion-fatigue curves for austenitic SSs in aqueous environments corresponding to normal BWR water chemistries, for BWRs that add hydrogen to the feedwater, and for pressurized water reactor primary-system-coolant chemistry. The corrosion-fatigue data and curves in water were compared with the air line in Section XI of the ASME Code.