TEM investigations on the effect of chromium content and of stress relief treatment on precipitation in Alloy 82

• Slight change of the Cr content does not affect the microstructure of the butt welds.
• Stress relief thermal treatment leads to the intergranular precipitation of Cr23C6.
• The Cr23C6 carbides are supposed to improve the SCC resistance of the butt welds.

Nickel-base alloys are widely used in nuclear Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs). Most of them have been found susceptible to Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC) in nominal PWR primary water. The time to initiation depends on the material and is longer for weld metals than for Alloy 600. This study will focus on Alloy 82, which is used in Dissimilar Metal Welds (DMWs). In service, DMWs are either in the as-welded state or have undergone a stress relief treatment. Previous SCC studies showed that the heat treatment reduces significantly the SCC susceptibility of the weld. In this context, this study focuses on the microstructure characterization of the weld in the as-welded state and in the heat-treated state. As chromium content is also a key factor for the SCC susceptibility, welds with low chromium content and medium chromium content were studied. The lower SCC susceptibility of the heat-treated welds was attributed to intergranular Cr23C6 resulting from a combined effect of heat treatment and chromium and carbon contents. These intergranular carbides could explain the better behavior of Alloy 82, compared to other nickel-base alloys.