Development of science based technology of welding and hardfacing for Indian Fast Reactor Programme

Establishing science and technology of Fast Breeder Reactors (FBRs) in India for power generation is essential for meeting growing energy demand in a sustainable manner. The development of FBRs necessitates extensive research and development in domains of materials and manufacturing technologies in association with a wide spectrum of disciplines and their inter-twining to meet the challenging technology. The paper highlight the work and the approaches adopted for the successful deployment of welding and hardfacing technologies for the structural components of current and future Indian Fast Breeder Reactor Programme. Robust welding technology has been established for manufacturing of various components of 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) such as reactor vessels, piping, steam generators, fuel sub-assemblies etc. through ‘sciencebased technology’ approach. The indigenous manufacture of the large components of the PFBR has been successful in meeting the specifications and indeed improving on the design requirements. The technology for the Hardfacing of the grid plate has also been successfully developed.