Oxidation characteristics of lead-alloy coolants in air ingress accident

Kondo, Masatoshi*; Okubo, Nariaki   ; Irisawa, Eriko ; Komatsu, Atsushi ; Ishikawa, Norito   ; Tanaka, Teruya*

The chemical behaviors of lead (Pb) based coolants in the air ingress accident of fast reactors were investigated by means of the thermodynamic considerations and the static oxidation experiments for Pb alloys at various chemical compositions. The results of the static oxidation tests for lead-bismuth (Pb-Bi) alloys indicated that Pb was depleted from the alloy due to the preferential formation of PbO in air at 773K. Pb-Bi oxide and BiO were formed after the enrichment of Bi in the alloys due to the Pb depletion. The oxidation rates of the alloys were much larger than that of the steels, and became larger with higher Pb concentration in the alloys. The compatibility of Pb-Bi alloys with stainless steel was worse when the Pb concentration in the alloys became low, since the dissolution type corrosion was promoted by the Bi composition in the alloy. The Pb-Li alloys were oxidized as they formed LiPbO and LiCO. Then, Li was depleted from the alloy.