Study on grain refinement for suppression of surface cracks in stainless steel used for nuclear reactor core (Thesis)

Hirota, Noriaki

JAEA-Review 2025-054, 132 Pages, 2026/03

JAEA-Review-2025-054.pdf:14.65MB

In recent years, extending the operational lifetimes of nuclear power plants and constructing new facilities have been conducted worldwide to achieve carbon neutrality. In Japan, following the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident on March 11, 2011, only light water reactors (LWRs) that meet newly established safety standards have been permitted to restart, with most restarted plants being pressurized water reactors (PWRs), which differ from the boiling water reactors (BWRs) that were utilized at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) poses a serious safety concern in nuclear power plants. In particular, stainless steels such as SUS304 and SUS316 are susceptible to crack initiation due to oxide films and residual stresses. Countermeasures such as alloy composition modification and laser peening, which imparts compressive residual stresses, have been attempted; however, it remains uncertain whether compressive residual stresses can be retained for long periods under high-temperature conditions. Therefore, this study focuses on grain refinement processing as a novel approach for SCC mitigation and establishes a fabrication process for grain-refined stainless steels. The influence of grain refinement on SCC crack initiation was systematically analyzed under simulated reactor environments, and the mechanisms of SCC suppression were investigated. Furthermore, a surface-localized grain refinement technique was proposed and its effectiveness in suppressing SCC was evaluated. These results indicate that this technology can significantly contribute to SCC mitigation during long-term operation of nuclear power plants and is expected to play an important role in extending the service life of structural components such as shrouds.

On-going R&D program at JAEA on the Advanced Technology Fuels; An Update on the Cr-coated Zry cladding research

Mohamad, A. B.; Yamashita, Shinichiro; Nemoto, Yoshiyuki; Abe, Yosuke; Pham, V. H.; Ioka, Ikuo; Soma, Yasutaka; Ishijima, Yasuhiro; Sato, Tomonori; Rizaal, M.; et al.

Proceedings of TopFuel 2025; Nuclear Reactor Fuel Performance Conference (Internet), 8 Pages, 2025/10

https://www.ans.org/pubs/proceedings/issue-3431/

Methods for regulating depth of corrosion fissures in simulated fastener holes of 7050-T7451 aluminum alloy

Aoyama, Takahito; Choudhary, S.*; Pandaleon, A.*; Burns, J. T.*; Kokaly, M.*; Restis, J.*; Ross, J.*; Kelly, R. G.*

Corrosion, 81(6), p.609 - 621, 2025/06

https://doi.org/10.5006/4739

Effect of grain refinement on transgranular stress corrosion cracking in SUS304L under boiling water reactor conditions

Hirota, Noriaki; Nakano, Hiroko; Takeda, Ryoma; Ide, Hiroshi; Tsuchiya, Kunihiko; Kobayashi, Yoshinao*

Material Science and Technology of Japan, 61(6), p.248 - 252, 2024/12

A comparative analysis of the 0.2 % yield stress in SUS304L stainless steel revealed that lower strain rates and higher temperatures significantly reduce yield stress. Grain refinement from 68.6 m to 0.59 m minimally impacted the rate of yield stress reduction at slower strain rates. However, finer grains showed a decrease in yield stress at reactor operating temperature compared to room temperature. In slow strain rate tests under conditions promoting intragranular stress corrosion cracking (SCC), SUS304L with grain sizes of 28.4 m or smaller exhibited similar fracture strains comparable to those at reactor operating temperatures, whereas coarse-grained SUS304L showed reduced fracture strain. Microstructural analysis showed that in smaller grains, over 87 % of the fracture surface was ductile. In particular, SUS304L with 0.59 m grains exhibited a higher presence of {111} / 3 boundaries, which decreased with grain growth. These results indicate that grain refinement will suppress intragranular SCC by slowing corrosion progression through increased {111} / 3 boundaries.

Development of a new corrosion mitigation technology using nanobubbles toward corrosion mitigation in PCV system under the influence of //-rays radiolysis (Contract research); FY2022 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; Tohoku University*

JAEA-Review 2024-019, 102 Pages, 2024/09

JAEA-Review-2024-019.pdf:4.4MB

The Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science (CLADS), Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), had been conducting the Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project (hereafter referred to "the Project") in FY2022. The Project aims to contribute to solving problems in the nuclear energy field represented by the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. (TEPCO). For this purpose, intelligence was collected from all over the world, and basic research and human resource development were promoted by closely integrating/collaborating knowledge and experiences in various fields beyond the barrier of conventional organizations and research fields. The sponsor of the Project was moved from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to JAEA since the newly adopted proposals in FY2018. On this occasion, JAEA constructed a new research system where JAEA-academia collaboration is reinforced and medium-to-long term research/development and human resource development contributing to the decommissioning are stably and consecutively implemented. Among the adopted proposals in FY2020, this report summarizes the research results of the "Development of a new corrosion mitigation technology using nanobubbles toward corrosion mitigation in PCV system under the influence of //-rays radiolysis" conducted from FY2020 to FY2022. The present study aims to corrosion, which is considered to be an important factor in the aging degradation of confinement functions (PCV, negative pressure maintenance system, etc.) during the fuel debris removal process. If the chemical species (especially HO) generated by radiolysis become locally concentrated in the areas where short-range - and -radiation emitting nuclides come into contact, the corrosion of steels may be greatly accelerated in those areas.

Estimating the corrosion rate of stainless steel R-SUS304ULC in nitric acid media under concentrating operation

Irisawa, Eriko; Kato, Chiaki

Journal of Nuclear Materials, 591, p.154914_1 - 154914_10, 2024/04

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2024.154914

The amount of corrosion of austenitic stainless-steel R-SUS304ULC was evaluated considering the changes in solution composition and boiling during actual concentration operations. Austenitic stainless-steel R-SUS304ULC is the structural material of the highly radioactive liquid waste concentrator in Japanese spent fuel reprocessing plant, which treats highly corrosive nitric acid solutions during enrichment operations. The study results show that it is necessary to focus on nitric acid concentrations, oxidizing metal ion concentrations, and decompression boiling as factors that accelerate the corrosion rate of stainless steel because of cathodic reaction activation.

Effect of dissolved oxygen concentration on dynamic strain aging and stress corrosion cracking of SUS304 stainless steel under high temperature pressurized water

Hirota, Noriaki; Nakano, Hiroko; Fujita, Yoshitaka; Takeuchi, Tomoaki; Tsuchiya, Kunihiko; Demura, Masahiko*; Kobayashi, Yoshinao*

The IV International Scientific Forum "Nuclear Science and Technologies"; AIP Conference Proceedings 3020, p.030007_1 - 030007_6, 2024/01

https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0192888

Dynamic strain aging (DSA) and intergranular stress corrosion cracking (intragranular SCC) occur in high temperature pressurized water simulating a boiling water reactor environment due to changes in dissolved oxygen (DO) content, respectively. In order to clearly understand the difference between these phenomena, the mechanism of their occurrence was summarized. As a result, it was found that DSA due to intragranular cracking occurred in SUS304 stainless steel at low DO 1 ppb, while DSA was suppressed at DO 100 to 8500 ppb due to the formation of oxide films on the surface. On the other hand, when DO was increased to 20000 ppb, the film was peeled from the matrix, O element diffused to the grain boundary of the matrix, resulting in intergranular SCC. These results are indicated that the optimum DO concentration must be adjusted to suppress crack initiation due to DSA and intergranular SCC.

Optimization of dissolved hydrogen concentration for mitigating corrosive conditions of pressurised water reactor primary coolant under irradiation, 2; Evaluation of electrochemical corrosion potential

Hata, Kuniki; Hanawa, Satoshi; Chimi, Yasuhiro; Uchida, Shunsuke; Lister, D. H.*

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 60(8), p.867 - 880, 2023/08

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2022.2127955

One of the major subjects for evaluating the corrosive conditions in the PWR primary coolant was to determine the optimal hydrogen concentration for mitigating PWSCC without any adverse effects on major structural materials. As suitable procedures for evaluating the corrosive conditions in PWR primary coolant, a couple of procedures, i.e., water radiolysis and ECP analyses, were proposed. The previous article showed the radiolysis calculation in the PWR primary coolant, which was followed by an ECP study here. The ECP analysis, a couple of a mixed potential model and an oxide layer growth model, was developed originally for BWR conditions, which was extended to PWR conditions with adding Li (Na) and H effects on the anodic polarization curves. As a result of comparison of the calculated results with INCA in-pile-loop experiment data as well as other experimental data, it was confirmed that the ECPs calculated with the coupled analyses agreed with the measured within 100mV discrepancies.

Development of a new corrosion mitigation technology using nanobubbles toward corrosion mitigation in PCV system under the influence of //-rays radiolysis (Contract research); FY2021 Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project

Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science; Tohoku University*

JAEA-Review 2022-069, 114 Pages, 2023/03

JAEA-Review-2022-069.pdf:5.91MB

The Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science (CLADS), Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), had been conducting the Nuclear Energy Science & Technology and Human Resource Development Project (hereafter referred to "the Project") in FY2021. The Project aims to contribute to solving problems in the nuclear energy field represented by the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (1F), Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. (TEPCO). For this purpose, intelligence was collected from all over the world, and basic research and human resource development were promoted by closely integrating/collaborating knowledge and experiences in various fields beyond the barrier of conventional organizations and research fields. The sponsor of the Project was moved from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to JAEA since the newly adopted proposals in FY2018. On this occasion, JAEA constructed a new research system where JAEA-academia collaboration is reinforced and medium-to-long term research/development and human resource development contributing to the decommissioning are stably and consecutively implemented. Among the adopted proposals in FY2020, this report summarizes the research results of the "Development of a new corrosion mitigation technology using nanobubbles toward corrosion mitigation in PCV system under the influence of //-rays radiolysis" conducted in FY2021. In this work, in order to ensure the long-term reliability of steel structures that ensure important confinement functions in the debris removal process, such as existing PCVs and newly constructed negative pressure maintenance systems and piping, corrosion phenomena in wet environments where - and -ray emitting nuclides come into contact with steel are clarified for the first time.

Introduction of Cu to the inside of the crevice by chelation and its effect on crevice corrosion of Type 316L stainless steel

Aoyama, Takahito; Kato, Chiaki

Corrosion Science, 210, Part2, p.110850_1 - 110850_10, 2023/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.corsci.2022.110850

The chelated complex of Cu: [Cu(EDTA)] was used to introduce Cu from outside to the inside of crevice. The introduced Cu was expected to act as an inhibitor for the crevice corrosion on stainless steels. Crevice corrosion tests, confirmed the introduction of Cu to the inside of the crevice via electromigration of [Cu(EDTA)] was confirmed. Migrated [Cu(EDTA)] reacted with H and inhibited decrease in pH inside the crevice, where Cu was separated from [Cu(EDTA)] and suppressed active dissolution of the stainless steel.