BWR Head O-Ring

[UncaBuffalo]

What are head o-rings made out of?

(I had always been told they were silver, but a text I am looking at says inconel...?)

[vikingfan]

silver oxide

[Motown homey]

The BWR I work at has inconel o-rings for the RPV head.

[alphadude]

nuclear alloy (inconel) with a film, of soft pure silver on the exterior.

[atomicarcheologist]

nuclear alloy (inconel) with a film, of soft pure silver on the exterior.

If there is silver present, it's like alphadude says because silver isn't present in the Inconel composition.

http://www.espi-metals.com/technicaldata.htm

[alphadude]

many years back i tried to salvage one thinking it was silver, the tclp gave me the scoop. not enuff silver to make a quarter.

[Fermi2]

IIRC Silver Oxide.

[alphadude]

silver oxide? wtf  soft metals (silver, nickel etc.) are used to ensure a conformance to the available surface. ive changed about 30 or so o rings on reactor heads and scraped out about 10 and sent as rad waste about 25 and all were silvery in color with some of the inner alloy showing thru on the used ones. never seen any silver oxide.

silver oxide is a brown powder.  http://www.saltlakemetals.com/Silver_Oxide.htm