Pre SMiRT

Technical seminar on Advanced Fracture Mechanics Criteria for Long Term Operation
Wednesday, August 4, and Thursday, August 5, 2027 

Bordeaux (France)

Limited places available.

Registrations to come in january

The ageing of nuclear power plant fleets, combined with increasing demands for decarbonized electricity and enhanced energy security, has led to growing interest in the Long-Term Operation (LTO) of nuclear power plants. Consequently, many countries have launched initiatives to extend plant operation beyond the originally envisaged design lifetime, provided that safety and performance can be demonstrated throughout the extended operating period.

In France, a huge work is currently going on regarding advanced Fracture Mechanics Criteria in preparation of an operation of the 900, 1300 and 1450 MWe reactors beyond a period of 60 years: those advanced criteria are identified as a solution to quantify, in a more representative way than the actual criteria, the effective margins available in Fracture Mechanics Assessment of large components.

The aim of the seminar is to share the experience gained in France during the development of these criteria and to discuss various initiatives currently underway worldwide regarding the structural justification of components within the LTO context.


KEY TOPICS

The key topics proposed for discussion are as follows:

  • Industrialization of the local approach to brittle fracture for application to reactor pressure vessel justification.
  • Use of the Master Curve based methodologies to characterize the fracture toughness of irradiated vessel steels.
  • Justification of low toughness components such as cast components against the risk of ductile fracture.
  • Crack propagation under cyclic loading: issues related to combining transients, accounting for cyclic thermal loads, environmental effects, residual stresses, etc.

The seminar will be organized around technical presentations and open discussions on the aforementioned key topics structured into four thematic sessions. Participants may propose presentations; the final program will be determined based on the number and content of the proposals received. These presentations may cover:

  • R&D activities—experimental and/or numerical—focused on component justification methods within the LTO context.
  • Methodological or criteria-related developments.
  • Codification and standardization efforts,operational feedback from industrial applications.

To organize the seminar program, a one-page abstract will be required for each proposed presentation (abstract to be sent by email to stephane.chapuliot@edf.fr & aurore.parrot@edf.fr). The selected presentations will be made available to all participants at the end of the seminar.

Organization

The seminar will be held at the Centre des Congrès – Cité Mondiale in downtown Bordeaux on August 4 and 5, 2027 (full days).

Registration for the seminar must be completed via the SMIRT website (fee of €50), as the number of participants is limited. The registration fee includes:

  • Access to the seminar for both days.
  • Coffee breaks (morning and afternoon).
  • The seminar dinner (on the evening of Thursday the 5th).

However, it does not include:

  • Travel expenses to and from Bordeaux.
  • Meals other than the coffee breaks and the seminar dinner.
  • Hotel accommodation in Bordeaux.

Venue

The seminar will take place in downtown Bordeaux, along the banks of the Garonne River and just a stone's throw from the Cité du Vin. As a popular tourist destination, Bordeaux has many hotels; however, it is advisable to book well in advance, as they are in high demand during August.

Bordeaux is accessible by plane (direct flights from Paris and Lyon) or by high-speed train (direct trains from Paris or Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport).