MAI-building-161109About the MAI.

The Materials Ageing Institute is a utility-oriented research center founded in January 2008 and financed by Electricité de France (EDF), the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO) and the US Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). The key purpose of the MAI is to direct efforts in research and development towards ageing of materials used in electrical power facilities. This initiative by the worldís biggest nuclear operators is motivated by the conviction that sharing research, experimental results, feedback and scientific information will significantly contribute to our understanding of the ageing processes in various materials employed in both nuclear and non-nuclear power plants. The combination of operational know-how, experimental knowledge, and computer modelling of coupled processes can then be used to anticipate ageing and henceforth increase the durability of materials, components and structures.

News

Material Degradation Course for Engineers Working in the Nuclear Industry
Jan 25, 2012 01:55 PM
The final program for the third offer of this course is now available. The course will take place from 5 to 8 June in Vail, Colorado, USA. 
Upcoming MAI Workshop
Aug 11, 2011 10:32 AM
About 50 researchers already subscribed to the unique workshop entitled "Inspection and Degradation Management of Concrete Structures in the Nuclear Industry", which will take place at the MAI from September 14 to 16, 2011. 
A successful Materials Degradation Course
May 06, 2011 08:05 PM
From May 3 to 5 2011, the MAI proposed its second offering of the "Materials Degradation Course for Engineers in the Nuclear Industry". 
MAI HQE Certified
Jul 08, 2010 12:00 AM
On June 17, 2010, the MAI building was officially certified in accordance to the French High Environmental Quality standards (HQE), a prestigious label certifying the quality of construction with respect of the environment. This is the first building of EDF Group HQE certified as a new construction. 

Focus

CORTEX Project

A new project was launched in July 2010 at the MAI: the CORTEX project, from the historic partnership between the MMC Department of EDF R&D and EPRI (USA). Led by François Vaillant (image at left), a senior researcher at EDF, CORTEX aims to conduct further investigations and a research program on corrosion of bottom mounted instrumentation (BMI) nozzles in nuclear power plants. « These are passages for the instrumentation of the reactor vessel, said François. The project follows prior investigations in the U.S. to address the cracking of two BMI were nozzles in the South Texas Project power plant. Because there has been no similar case yet in any plant owned by the MAI members, we wanted to further research this topic. » Thanks to feedback from EPRI on South Texas Project, the MAI could get samples from the cracked BMI nozzles of the American plant. The purpose of CORTEX is twofold: investigate the mechanical properties of the material in tension and define an index of sensitivity to stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of the material used.

 STP BMI Nozzles

Cortex aims at understanding the mechanical behavior of the BMI Nozzles extracted from South Texas Project.

 
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