March Meeting Announcement
MaterialsDC Moderator
for the April meeting, please also note that we are trying a new way
to send local chapter news for ASM, MRS, ACerS and TMS. Anyone can
join at http://groups. google.com/group/materialsdc (You can also
unsubscribe at will... but we hope you won't.)
Date:
Tuesday March 20, 2007
Location:
Executive Conference Center
3601 Wilson Boulevard
Suite 600 - Monroe Room
Arlington, VA 22201
Metrostop: Virginia Square Station
Website: http://www.sainc.com/ecc/
Schedule:
6:30 pm -- Social (beer & wine provided)
7:15 pm -- Dinner
7:45 pm -- Announcements
8:00 pm -- Presentation
RSVP:
Email to ch...@asm-dc.org or alcs...@yahoo.com
or
Call 703-218-1237 and leave a message
Cost:
$20 members
$10 full-time students
(beer & wine is included so please reserve your spot!
Title:
Lessons Learned from a Significant Corrosion Event at the Davis-Besse
Nuclear Power Station
Speaker:
Dr. Bill Cullen
Senior Materials Engineer
Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Abstract:
In early March, 2002, during an inspection forced by the US Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, the staff at the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power
Plant discovered an unprecedented amount of corrosion on their
pressure vessel head. The corrosion had erased at least forty pounds
of low-steel from the vessel head, leaving only the layer of stainless
steel cladding (about 5/16 in thick) containing the roughly 2100 psi/
600°F water in the vessel. Five years later (and probably continuing
for a couple more), the NRC and the industry are still tidying up the
remaining issues arising from this discovery. I'll provide a well-
illustrated presentation describing the discovery, the evidence for
what happened both before and after, and a high-level review of the
research programs that ensued. The leak at Davis-Besse was due to
stress-corrosion cracking of the nickel-base Alloy 600 control rod
drive housing, and I'll review some interesting history and
consequences of this issue as well.
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Bill Cullen is a Senior Materials Engineer, Division of Fuel,
Engineering and Radiological Research in the Office of Nuclear
Regulatory Research. He is principally responsible for management of
programs addressing environmentally-assisted cracking, and degradation
of materials. In earlier phases of his gainful employment, he had been
a Metallurgist at the Naval Research Laboratory (1972 - 1980), Senior
Scientist at Materials Engineering Associates, in Lanham, MD (1980 -
2001) and Senior Metallurgist at the Naval Surface Warfare Center,
Carderock (2001-2002).
During the bulk of his career (at MEA) Bill conducted environmentally-
assisted cracking tests in high-temperature, high-pressure primary and
secondary PWR coolant environments - for steam generator and reactor
internals applications, in high-temperature steam - for turbine
applications, and in high-temperature, high-pressure hydrogen gas -
for Space Shuttle Main Engine applications. Bill received his B. S. in
1966 from LeMoyne College, in Syracuse, NY, and his Ph.D. in
Metallurgy from Iowa State University in 1971. To his everlasting
gratitude, Bill was offered a job at the NRC as a Materials Engineer
in 2002.