CORROSION KINETICS OF NICKEL-BASE ALLOYS WITH HIGH CHROMIUM CONTENTS UNDER SIMULATED BWR NORMAL WATER CHEMISTRY CONDITIONS AND HIGH FLOW VELOCITY

In light water reactors corrosion-induced material degradation is a critical issue not only for material integrity but also for plant radiation field build-up. In BWRs nickel-base alloys, such as Alloy 600, Alloy 82 and Alloy 182, are applied in various parts of reactor components including welds. However, their corrosion mechanisms are not very well understood. Although the complex compositions of different nickel-base alloys generally prohibit us to single out some specific alloy constituent having a major impact on alloy corrosion rate, a higher chromium content is often thought to be beneficial to forming a more protective oxide film against corrosion attack. In this paper we report a corrosion kinetics study on high chromium nickel-base alloy welding consumables, Alloy 52M and Alloy 152, under simulated BWR normal water chemistry conditions and high flow velocity for up to nine weeks exposure. The corrosion rates are derived from measurements of weight losses of test coupons, oxide thicknesses with infrared ellipsometry, and microstructures of oxide films with electron microscopy. The obtained corrosion rates are then compared to that for Alloy 182, Alloy 82 and Alloy 600. The results show that the corrosion rate for Alloy 52M is similar to those for Alloy 182, whereas the rate for Alloy 152 is reduced to less than half. These observations indicate that the corrosion kinetics for nickel-base alloys is complex and alloy chromium content alone is not a dominant factor in influencing alloy corrosion rate.