Corrosion behavior of copper in environments containing sulfides

Watari, Shingo*; Kitayama, Ayami  ; Mitsui, Seiichiro  ; Taniguchi, Naoki ; Kimura, Wataru*; Kajiyama, Hiroshi*

The application of pure copper is being considered for the purpose of extending the life-time of disposal canisters in the direct disposal of spent fuel. Pure copper generally shows little corrosion development in aqueous solution environments with low oxygen concentrations due to its thermodynamic stability, but pure copper loses thermodynamic stability and corrosion develops depending on the sulfides conditions. In this study, immersion tests and U-bend tests were conducted to understand the corrosion progress behavior and stress corrosion cracking behavior of pure copper under the condition of sparging gas with various hydrogen sulfide concentrations to simulate the disposal environment where sulfide exists.