Abstract. The planned lifetime of the first commercial VVER-1000 units were designed for 30 to 35 years. Most of the early VVER plants are now reaching and/or passing the 35-year mark. Service life extension for another 10 to 30 years is now under investigation. Life extension requires the evaluation of pressure vessel internals degradation under long-term irradiation. One of the possible limiting factors for the service life of VVERs is a void swelling of the Russian type titanium stabilized stainless 08Ch18N10T steel used to construct the baffle surrounding the core. This article aims to show first steps towards deeper analysis of the baffle degradation process and to demonstrate the possibilities of precise calculation and measurements on the VVER-1000 mock-up in LR-0 reactor.

Abstract. The pin power density is an important quantity which has to be monitored during the reactor operation, for two main reasons. Firstly, it is part of the limits and conditions of safe operation and, secondly, it is source term in neutron transport calculations used for the adequate assessing of the state of core structures and pressure vessel material. It is often calculated using deterministic codes which may have problems with an adequate definition of boundary conditions in subcritical regions. This may lead to overestimation of real situation, and therefore the validation of the utility codes contributes not only to better fuel utilization, but also to more precise description of radiation situation in structural components of core. Current paper presents methods developed at LR-0 reactor, as well as selected results for pin power density measurement in peripheral regions of VVER-1000 mock-up. The presented data show that the results of a utility diffusion code at core boundary overestimate the measurement. This situation, however satisfactory safe, may lead to unduly conservative approach in the determination of radiation damage of core structures.