A novel method of viscoelastic stability estimation has been developed by Dr. C. G. Merrett and has been applied to rings. This theory has applications to the nuclear industry as once viscoelastic rings are understood, the theory can be expanded to predict the life of viscoelastic helical coils, which are found in the CANDU nuclear reactor as tight fitting spacers. The tests showed a decrease in life time of the rings as the load was increased. The trend of the decreasing life with increasing load over the load range is clear in the experiments, and the lack of a similar trend in the theory does not appear to be correct. Further refinement of the theory to reflect this trend should be made, but more testing over a greater range of materials, loads and geometries should be performed to better confirm or disprove the theory.