Study on Pb-Bi Corrosion of Structural and Fuel Cladding Materials for Nuclear Applications,3; Corrosion investigation of steels between 500 and 650C during 10,000 h of exposure to stagnant liquid Pb-Bi containing 10 wt% of oxygen

Muller, G.*; Schumacher, G.*; Weisenburger, A.*; Heinzel, A.*; Zimmermann, F.*; Furukawa, Tomohiro  ; Aoto, Kazumi 

This is the third report on the compatibility of structural and fuel cladding materials that has to be investigated for a possible advanced heavy metal cooled reactor system. The first two reports considered the behavior of 316 FR, P122 and ODS steels during 800, 2,000 and 5,000 h in stagnant LBE at 500 - 650C containing 10-6 wt% of oxygen. This report describes the results of all experiments including that of 10,000 h duration. Martensitic steels perform well at 500 and 550C up to the maximal exposure time of 10,000 h, while austenites fail after 5,000 h. At temperatures of 600C and 650C all of the steels fail the earlier the higher the temperature is. Steels with Al - alloying at the surface by the GESA process withstand corrosion up to the maximal exposure time at all of the applied temperatures if it is ensured that the Al - concentration at the surface is in between 8 - 15 wt%.