Development of high purity large forgings for nuclear power plants

The recent increase in the size of energy plants has been supported by the development of manufacturing technology for high purity large forgings for the key components of the plant. To assure the reliability and performance of the large forgings, refining technology to make high purity steels, casting technology for gigantic ingots, forging technology to homogenize the material and consolidate porosity are essential, together with the required heat treatment and machining technologies. To meet these needs, the double degassing method to reduce impurities, multi-pouring methods to cast the gigantic ingots, vacuum carbon deoxidization, the warm forging process and related technologies have been developed and further improved. Furthermore, melting facilities including vacuum induction melting and electro slag re-melting furnaces have been installed. By using these technologies and equipment, large forgings have been manufactured and shipped to customers. These technologies have also been applied to the manufacture of austenitic steel vessel components of the fast breeder reactors and components for fusion experiments. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.