Steel corrosion in LBE at different temperatures and

oxygen concentrations

A. Heinzel, G. Mueller, A. Weisenburger

The concept of an ADS (accelerator driven system), which intended to be used for the transmutation of actinides and transuranics, combines a sub critical fission device and an accelerator driven spallation neutron source. Liquid lead or a lead bismuth alloy are candidate materials for the spallation target and the coolant. To guarantee a continuous operation the corrosion problems caused by liquid Pb and PbBi have to be controlled. It is known that protective oxide layers on steel surfaces retard the corrosion attack.

The Institute for Pulsed Power and Microwave Technology (IHM), the KALLA-Laboratory and international partners have a close collaboration to investigate the corrosion of steels at different temperatures and oxygen concentrations. To control the oxygen an automatic gas phase control was developed and designed. An important improvement of the corrosion behaviour of material in liquid lead alloys is the alloying of Al into the steel surface by GESA.

In the first part of this presentation the oxygen control and the developed automatic gas phase control will be introduced. In the second part the state-of-the-art of the corrosion experiments and the results with original and surface treated steels will by presented.

als Vortrag :

Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI), 17.2.2005

F+E : 31.26.04 !!!