Development of specimen preparation techniques for pitting potential measurement of irradiated fuel cladding tubes

Suzuki, Kazuhiro; Motooka, Takafumi; Tsukada, Takashi ; Terakawa, Yuto; Ichise, Kenichi ; Numata, Masami; Kikuchi, Hiroyuki

By the effect of the Great East Japan Earthquake, seawater was injected into spent fuel pools in unit 2, 3 and 4 at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant in order to cool spent fuels. It is known that chloride ion contained in seawater could cause pitting corrosion for metallic materials. It was concerned that radioactive products inside of fuel cladding tubes might be escaped through the pits. Therefore we have investigated the pit initiation condition of fuel cladding tubes by measuring pitting potential in order to evaluate stability of the enclosure function of fuel cladding tubes in spent fuel pools containing sea salt. In this report, we describe the development of specimen preparation techniques for pitting measurement of spent fuel cladding tubes having high radioactivity. By accomplishing of the development of the specimen preparation techniques, we could evaluate pit initiation condition of spent fuel cladding tubes in water containing sea salt.