Abstract
The 3013 standard has been adopted by the DOE for the long-term storage of Pu-baring salts from the US weapons program. In this standard austenitic steels, such as SS 316L, are called out. Potentially, the internal can environment may include high salt content (chlorides of Mg, Na, K) and moisture (up to 0.5wt%). For failure of the 3013 container to occur via environment-induced cracking two separate events must take place: 1) a crack must first initiate and 2) it must propagate through the container wall in less time than the anticipated shelf-life. We have shown in previous investigations that corrosion pits will form on the interior wall of the 3013 even in the driest of environments. Although the probability of these pits propagating through the wall during the anticipated 3013 shelf-life time has been shown to be low, these pits may provide the "initiation event" necessary for failure via environment-induced cracking. Therefore, one would like to know the influence of the 3013 environment on the propagation of a crack through the wall. In this paper a test plan making fracture toughness measurement on 3013 material, fabricated test specimens, and initiate testing.
