Electrochemical behavior of carbon steel with bentonite/sand in saline environment

Kitayama, Ayami  ; Taniguchi, Naoki ; Mitsui, Seiichiro  

Current designs for the geological disposal of high-level radioactive wastes in Japan use carbon steel overpack containers surrounded by a mixed bentonite/sand buffer material, which will be located in a purpose built repository deep in the underground. There are suitable sites for a repository in Japan, however coastal areas are preferred from a logistics point of view. It is therefore important to perform the long-term performance of the carbon steel overpack and mixed bentonite/sand buffer material in the saline groundwaters of coastal areas. In the current study, the passivation behavior and initial corrosion rates of carbon steel with and without mixed bentonite/sand were tested as a function of pH in representative saline groundwaters. The main findings of the current study indicate that passivation of carbon steel with buffer material will be difficult in a saline environment, even at high pH = 12 conditions, and that the corrosion rate of carbon steel was more strongly affected by the presence of buffer material than by the concentration.