Corrosion mechanisms of candidate structural materials for supercritical water-cooled reactor

Nickel-based alloys, austenitic stainless steel, ferritic/martensitic heat-resistant steels, and oxide dispersion strengthened steel are presently considered to be the candidate structural or fuel-cladding materials for supercritical water-cooled reactor (SCWR), one of the promising generation IV reactor for large-scale electric power production. However, corrosion and stress corrosion cracking of these candidate alloys still remain to be a major problem in the selection of nuclear fuel cladding and other structural materials, such as water rod. Survey of literature and experimental results reveal that the general corrosion mechanism of those candidate materials exhibits quite complicated mechanism in high-temperature and high-pressure supercritical water. Formation of a stable protective oxide film is the key to the best corrosionresistant alloys. This paper focuses on the mechanism of corrosion oxide film breakdown for SCWR candidate materials. © 2009 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH.