Over 50 years of electricity production from light water reactors - What material sciences have brought to these reactors

The first light water nuclear reactor dedicated to electricity production was put into operation in Shippingport in the United States in 1957, and supplied the city of Pittsburgh. More than 50 years after this event, it is clear that this type of reactor will be a major source of electricity and one of the efficient solutions to mitigate climate change in the 21st century.

The talk will describe the role of R&D in the development of light water reactors via a few examples which benchmark the last 50 years. These examples relate to what material sciences have brought for the manufacture and operation of the most important component for the reactor safety: the pressure vessel. Each example illustrates the will and commitment of the teams who tried to open up routes of progress in areas as varied as steel making, manufacturing processes, mechanics of materials, understanding of irradiation effects, etc. Step by step, these examples set out a part of the knowledge and tools which contribute to the safety of today’s pressure vessels and/or which will help to define pressure vessels of future generations of reactors. They also show that the nuclear industry is a sector where technical solutions are systematically backed up by a very precise understanding of the involved phenomena.