Irradiation-assisted cracking of SA508-304L weldments with 308L groove filler and 309L butter in hot water immersion constant rate extension tests

Low alloy SA508 bainitic steel is often welded to 300 series austenitic stainless steel in nuclear power plants. These dissimilar metal weldments use 309L butter applied to the low alloy steel and 308L groove filler material to join the 309L to austenite. High alloy steels (such as the 308L and 309L material used here) have been identified as having greater susceptibility to irradiation-assisted stress corrosion cracking (IASCC). Evidence is presented here of cracking under tensile loads in 309L weldment butter in LWR hydrothermal conditions that correlates irradiation induced changes at δ ferrite−γ austenite phase boundaries and γ−γ grain boundaries; specifically intergranular Cr₂₃C₆ precipitates. Cracking is not observed in irradiated 308L groove filler under the same conditions. Both the 309L butter and 308L filler material have a duplex or mixed δ−γ phase microstructure due to solidification during the welding procedure. We have performed constant extension rate autoclave immersion tests in BWR normal water chemistry hot water (288 °C, 10 MPa, 2000 wt. ppb dissolved oxygen, <100 nS/cm conductivity, neutral pH) of proton irradiated (2 MeV, approximately 3 displacements per atom at a depth of 10 μm) tensile specimens. Proton irradiation to the dpa levels used here induced Cr₂₃C₆ carbide precipitation at γ−γ grain boundaries and δ−γ phase boundaries in the 309L butter but not the 308L filler. Cracking was observed in the proton-irradiated volume of 309L at these interfaces in the vicinity of the Cr₂₃C₆ precipitates. We hypothesis the SA508 is the source of carbon in the 309L butter. Cr depletion at γ−γ grain boundaries was also observed and may also be a root cause of cracking. The 309L butter is under significant tensile residual stress in the weldment that adds to applied tensile loads and this too may be a contributing factor.