Corrosion of candidate container materials in air-steam mixtures

Conference · Sun Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1987

OSTI ID:6560390

Lutton, J M; Dewees, D A; Robinson, C G; Brehm, W F; Anantatmula, R P

The environment during the operating period of a high-level nuclear waste repository in basalt is expected to be air saturated with steam. Liquid groundwater is not expected to be in contact with the container surface during that time. The report presents corrosion findings from tests conducted for one to twenty-five months in an air-steam environment. Tests were carried out with bare metal specimens exposed to an air atmosphere containing 12% moisture in chambers maintained at temperatures between 150/degree/C and 300/degree/C. Cast carbon steel exhibited total penetrations less than 0.002 mm for exposures up to 25 months. A ferritic alloy steel, Fe9Cr1Mo, showed corrosion results very similar to cast carbon steel. Unalloyed copper materials showed essentially linear corrosion rates, with total penetrations between 0.002 mm at 150/degree/C and 0.14 mm at 300/degree/C in 25 months. Cupronickel 90-10 exhibited total penetrations between 0.001 mm at 150/degree/C and 0.05 mm at 300/degree/C in 25 months. There was a tendency for the corrosion rate to increase with time for cupronickel at 250/degree/C and 300/degree/C possibly because of a mid-test change in the corrosion mechanism. Limited testing of specimens surrounded with bentonite/basalt packing material indicated that the presence of packing has no strong effect on the corrosion of iron-base materials; however, copper-base and cupronickel materials corroded at higher rates in the presence of packing, with a possible shift towards the lower bare specimen corrosion rates with increasing time. 8 refs., 5 figs., 3 tabs.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 6560390
• Report Number(s): PNL-SA-15454; CONF-871124-106; ON: DE89005155
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

052002* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Waste Disposal & Storage
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
360105 -- Metals & Alloys-- Corrosion & Erosion
AIR
ALLOYS
BASALT
CARBON STEELS
COPPER
COPPER ALLOYS
COPPER BASE ALLOYS
CORROSIVE EFFECTS
ELEMENTS
FLUIDS
GASES
GROUND WATER
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
IGNEOUS ROCKS
IRON ALLOYS
IRON BASE ALLOYS
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
METALS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
ROCKS
STEAM
STEELS
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
TIME DEPENDENCE
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
UNDERGROUND DISPOSAL
VOLCANIC ROCKS
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES
WATER