Corrosion of Research Reactor Aluminium Clad Spent Fuel in Water
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Technical Reports SeriEs No. 4I8 Corrosion of Research Reactor Aluminium Clad Spent Fuel in Water CORROSION OF RESEARCH REACTOR ALUMINIUM CLAD SPENT FUEL IN WATER The following States are Members of the International Atomic Energy Agency: AFGHANISTAN GREECE PARAGUAY ALBANIA GUATEMALA PERU ALGERIA HAITI PHILIPPINES ANGOLA HOLY SEE POLAND ARGENTINA HONDURAS PORTUGAL ARMENIA HUNGARY QATAR AUSTRALIA ICELAND REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA AUSTRIA INDIA ROMANIA AZERBAIJAN INDONESIA BANGLADESH IRAN, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF RUSSIAN FEDERATION BELARUS IRAQ SAUDI ARABIA BELGIUM IRELAND SENEGAL BENIN ISRAEL SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO BOLIVIA ITALY SEYCHELLES BOSNIA AND JAMAICA SIERRA LEONE HERZEGOVINA JAPAN SINGAPORE BOTSWANA JORDAN SLOVAKIA BRAZIL KAZAKHSTAN SLOVENIA BULGARIA KENYA SOUTH AFRICA BURKINA FASO KOREA, REPUBLIC OF SPAIN CAMEROON KUWAIT SRI LANKA CANADA KYRGYZSTAN SUDAN CENTRAL AFRICAN LATVIA SWEDEN REPUBLIC LEBANON CHILE LIBERIA SWITZERLAND CHINA LIBYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC COLOMBIA LIECHTENSTEIN TAJIKISTAN COSTA RICA LITHUANIA THAILAND CÔTE D’IVOIRE LUXEMBOURG THE FORMER YUGOSLAV CROATIA MADAGASCAR REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA CUBA MALAYSIA TUNISIA CYPRUS MALI TURKEY CZECH REPUBLIC MALTA UGANDA DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC MARSHALL ISLANDS UKRAINE OF THE CONGO MAURITIUS UNITED ARAB EMIRATES DENMARK MEXICO UNITED KINGDOM OF DOMINICAN REPUBLIC MONACO GREAT BRITAIN AND ECUADOR MONGOLIA NORTHERN IRELAND EGYPT MOROCCO UNITED REPUBLIC EL SALVADOR MYANMAR OF TANZANIA ERITREA NAMIBIA UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ESTONIA NETHERLANDS URUGUAY ETHIOPIA NEW ZEALAND FINLAND NICARAGUA UZBEKISTAN FRANCE NIGER VENEZUELA GABON NIGERIA VIETNAM GEORGIA NORWAY YEMEN GERMANY PAKISTAN ZAMBIA GHANA PANAMA ZIMBABWE The Agency’s Statute was approved on 23 October 1956 by the Conference on the Statute of the IAEA held at United Nations Headquarters, New York; it entered into force on 29 July 1957. The Headquarters of the Agency are situated in Vienna. Its principal objective is “to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world’’. © IAEA, 2003 Permission to reproduce or translate the information contained in this publication may be obtained by writing to the International Atomic Energy Agency,Wagramer Strasse 5, P.O. Box 100, A-1400 Vienna, Austria. Printed by the IAEA in Austria December 2003 STI/DOC/010/418 TECHNICAL REPORTS SERIES No. 418 CORROSION OF RESEARCH REACTOR ALUMINIUM CLAD SPENT FUEL IN WATER INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY VIENNA, 2003 IAEA Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Corrosion of research reactor aluminium clad spent fuel in water. — Vienna : International Atomic Energy Agency, 2003. p. ; 24 cm. — (Technical reports series, ISSN 0074–1914 ; no. 418) STI/DOC/010/418 ISBN 92–0–113703–6 Includes bibliographical references. 1. Aluminum — Corrosion. 2. Nuclear fuel claddings. 3. Spent reactor fuels. I. International Atomic Energy Agency. II. Technical reports series (International Atomic Energy Agency) ; 418. IAEAL 03-00341 FOREWORD This report documents the work performed in the IAEA Co-ordinated Research Project (CRP) on Corrosion of Research Reactor Aluminium Clad Spent Fuel in Water. The project consisted of the exposure of standard racks of corrosion coupons in the spent fuel pools of the participating research reactor laboratories and the evaluation of the coupons after predetermined exposure times, along with periodic monitoring of the storage water. The project was overseen by a supervisory group consisting of experts in the field, who also contributed a state of the art review that is included in this report. The study was carried out in six laboratories in industrialized Member States and four laboratories in developing countries. Besides the basic goal of obtaining insight into the mechanisms of localized corrosion, a secondary goal was the transfer of know-how at the laboratory level from some of the more advanced laboratories and the supervisory group to the four institutes in devel- oping Member States. Localized corrosion mechanisms are notoriously difficult to understand, and it was clear from the outset that obtaining consistency in the results and their interpretation from laboratory to laboratory would depend on the development of an excellent set of experimental protocols. The basic scope of the programme was originally formulated by the IAEA with the help of the supervisory group in early 1996. The design of the standard corrosion racks and corrosion coupons was based on a corrosion surveillance and monitoring programme for aluminium clad production reactor fuel that had already been established at the United States Department of Energy Savannah River Site (SRS) in Aiken, South Carolina. The CRP began formally with the signing of contracts and agreements in early 1996. The first Research Co-ordination Meeting (RCM) was held in August 1996. At this meeting the participants were briefed, the experimental protocols were developed and the first corrosion racks were distributed. Further RCMs were hosted by two of the participating laboratories in 1998 and 2000. Supervisory group meetings were also held at regular intervals to review the results obtained. The programme was completed and documented in mid-2001. This report describes all of the work undertaken as part of the CRP and includes: a review of the state of the art understanding of corrosion of research reactor aluminium alloy cladding materials; a description of the standard corrosion racks, experimental protocols, test procedures and water quality monitoring; the specific contributions by each of nine participating labora- tories; a compilation of all experimental results obtained; and the supervisory group’s analysis and discussion of the results, along with conclusions and recommendations. The IAEA wishes to thank all of the participants in the CRP for their contributions to this publication. Special thanks are also due to J.P. Howell (SRS, USA), A.B. Johnson, Jr. (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Hanford, Washington, USA), L.V. Ramanathan (Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares, São Paulo, Brazil) and I. Vidovszky (KFKI Atomic Energy Research Institute, Budapest, Hungary), who were the major contrib- utors to the drafting and review of Chapters 1 to 4 of this publication and who together with the Scientific Secretary of the CRP formed the supervisory group. The IAEA officer responsible for the compilation of this report was I.G. Ritchie of the Division of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology. EDITORIAL NOTE Although great care has been taken to maintain the accuracy of information contained in this publication, neither the IAEA nor its Member States assume any respon- sibility for consequences which may arise from its use. The mention of names of specific companies or products (whether or not indicated as registered) does not imply any intention to infringe proprietary rights, nor should it be construed as an endorsement or recommendation on the part of the IAEA. CONTENTS SUMMARY . 1 CHAPTER 1. BACKGROUND OF THE IAEA CO-ORDINATED RESEARCH PROJECT . 7 1.1. Introduction . 7 1.2. Storage of research and test reactor spent fuel worldwide . 8 1.3. IAEA Co-ordinated Research Project . 10 1.3.1. Details of the corrosion monitoring programme . 11 1.3.2. Initiation of the Co-ordinated Research Project . 12 1.3.3. Monitoring corrosion racks at research reactor storage basins . 12 1.3.4. Results . 13 1.3.4.1. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica, Centro Atómico Constituyentes (CNEA-CAC), Buenos Aires, Argentina . 13 1.3.4.2. Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares (IPEN), São Paulo, Brazil . 14 1.3.4.3. China Institute of Atomic Energy, Beijing, China . 15 1.3.4.4. KFKI Atomic Energy Research Institute, Budapest, Hungary . 15 1.3.4.5. Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay, India . 16 1.3.4.6. Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan . 17 1.3.4.7. Research Institute of Atomic Reactors, Dimitrovgrad, Russian Federation . 17 1.3.4.8. Russian Research Center, Kurchatov Institute, Moscow, Russian Federation . 18 1.3.4.9. Office of Atomic Energy for Peace, Bangkok, Thailand . 18 1.3.5. General comments on the CRP . 19 1.4. SRS corrosion surveillance programme . 19 1.4.1. Background . 20 1.4.2. Component immersion tests . 21 1.4.3. Research and test reactor spent fuel corrosion surveillance . 23 1.4.3.1. Corrosion racks and test coupons . 23 1.4.3.2. Schedule for withdrawal and analysis . 26 1.4.3.3. Results . 27 1.4.4. Myth of microbially influenced corrosion in the RBOF at SRS . 29 1.5. Conclusions . 31 References to Chapter 1 . 33 CHAPTER 2. STATE OF THE ART REVIEW ON ALUMINIUM CORROSION . 35 2.1. Introduction . 35 2.2. Fundamental factors affecting corrosion . 36 2.2.1. Oxide films on aluminium . 36 2.2.2. Kinetics . 37 2.2.3. Types of corrosion . 37 2.3. Environmental factors affecting aluminium corrosion . 40 2.3.1. Influence of water composition . 41 2.3.2. Conductivity of water . 41 2.3.3. Effect of pH . 43 2.3.4. Effect of impurities . 43 2.3.5. Copper . 44 2.3.6. Bicarbonate . 45 2.3.7. Sulphates . 45 2.3.8. Oxygen . 46 2.3.9. Temperature . 46 2.4. Pitting rate index . 47 2.5. Conclusions . 48 References to Chapter 2 . 49 CHAPTER 3. GUIDELINES FOR CORROSION PROTECTION OF RESEARCH REACTOR ALUMINIUM CLAD SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL IN INTERIM WET STORAGE . 51 3.1. Introduction . 51 3.2. Scope . 52 3.3. Corrosion experience with aluminium clad spent fuel in wet storage . 52 3.4. Types of corrosion encountered in spent fuel storage basins . 53 3.4.1. Uniform corrosion . 53 3.4.2. Galvanic corrosion . 53 3.4.3. Crevice corrosion . 54 3.4.4. Pitting corrosion . 54 3.4.5. Hydrogen blisters . 55 3.5. Proposed guidelines for corrosion protection of aluminium clad spent fuel in wet storage . 56 3.5.1. Water chemistry . 56 3.5.2. Operational practices . 58 References to Chapter 3 . 61 CHAPTER 4. CRP TEST MATERIALS, RACKS AND EXPERIMENTAL PROTOCOLS . 63 4.1. Introduction . 63 4.2. Materials, coupons and racks .