Characterization of celotex and thermodynamic calculations of the formation of corrosion precursors on beryllium

Technical Report · Thu Apr 01 04:00:00 EST 1999

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/334202· OSTI ID:334202

Diaz-Ortiz, A; Stolk, J; Kim, J; Sanchez, J M; Manthiram, A ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States). Materials Science and Engineering Program

The importance of safe and long-term storage of nuclear weapons components has drawn attention towards the characterization and understanding of the corrosion precursors formed on beryllium. A complete compositional and thermal characterization of celotex was carried out using energy dispersive spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma-mass spectroscopic analysis, ion chromatography, and thermogravimetric analysis. Both fluoride and sulfate anions in addition to chloride as well as several metal ions are found to be present. The chloride present in celotex is lost at moderate temperatures 200 < T < 400 C, which may have important consequences on the formation of corrosion precursors. Equilibrium thermodynamic calculations on the stability of beryllium oxide in chlorinated environments were performed for a model system composed by beryllium, carbon, chlorine, hydrogen and oxygen. The calculations were aimed at describing the equilibrium, long-term behavior of a beryllium surface and its interaction with chlorine in a closed environment. The authors found that (i) carbon is essential for the formation of BeCl{sub 2}, and (ii) the chlorine-to-hydrogen ratio in chlorinated solvents is an important quantity since for solvents with chlorine-to-hydrogen ratio higher than 1, BeCl{sub 2} is not formed independently of the amount of solvent.

• Research Organization: Amarillo National Resource Center for Plutonium, TX (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: FC04-95AL85832
• OSTI ID: 334202
• Report Number(s): ANRCP--1999-16; ON: DE99002208
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
BERYLLIUM
CHLORIDES
CORROSIVE EFFECTS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
PACKAGING
SOLVENTS
SPECTROSCOPY
THERMODYNAMICS