lnvestigation for corrosion behavior of core materials in lead cooled reactor

Kaito, Takeji 

The corrosion behavior of core materials in lead cooled reactor was investigated as the feasibility study for fast breeder reactor. The results are summarized as follows. (1)The corrosion of stainless steels under lead and lithium occurs mainly due to the dissolution of nickel. Consequently ferritic stainless steels have better resistance to corrosion under lead and lithium than austenitic stainless steels, and the corrosion resistance of high nickel steels is worst. (2)The dissolution rate, D(mg/m/h), is correlated with lead and lithium temperature, T(K), as log Da = 10.7873 - 6459.3/ T and logDf = 7.6185 - 4848.4/T, where D a is the dissolution rate for austenitic steels and D f is for ferritic steels. lt's possible to calculate the corrosion thickness, C(m), using the following correlation: C = (Dt)/10, where t is exposure time(hr) and is density of the core matelial (g/cm). (3)The corrosion thickness estimated for austenitic steels using above correlations was extremely larger than ferritic steels, about 6 times at 400C and more than 20 times at above 600C. lt's considered that applicable temperature in lead cooled reactor core is below 400C (about 60m corrosion thickness after 30000 hr) for austenitic steels, and below 500C (about 80 m after 30000 hr) for ferritic steels.