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Environmental Damage in Nuclear Plants

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Abstract

Structural components in nuclear plants are exposed to the operation environment, predominantly the coolant. Interactions with this environment and the surface of the components can lead to severe damage. Water, steam, liquid metals (sodium, lithium, lead, lead–bismuth), helium and molten salts are the most important environments for nuclear plants. In the first part the chapter provides an introduction into the expected damage mechanisms. Examples for corrosion damage for different plants are shown in the second part. In contrast to about fifty years experience with water/steam as coolants for the other environments only very limited field experience or even no experience exists. Therefore the plant related examples are often speculative and need to be validated by longer experience in the future.

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Hoffelner, W. (2013). Environmental Damage in Nuclear Plants. In: Materials for Nuclear Plants. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2915-8_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2915-8_6

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