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Corrosion Considerations Related to Carbon Steel Radioactive Waste Packages Exposed to Cementitious Materials

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Abstract

The Supercontainer is the reference concept for the post-conditioning of vitrified high-level radioactive waste and spent fuel in Belgium. It consists of a prefabricated concrete buffer that completely surrounds a carbon steel overpack. In this highly alkaline environment (pH ~ 13.6) and under normal conditions (i.e. without the ingress of aggressive species), the carbon steel overpack will be protected by a passive oxide film, which is believed to result in very low uniform corrosion rates.

This paper gives an overview of the status of the uniform corrosion, pitting corrosion and stress corrosion cracking behaviour of carbon steel expected during the waste disposal period.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. SCK•CEN, The Belgian Nuclear Research Centre, R&D Waste Packages Unit, Boeretang 200, 2400 Mol, Belgium

    Bruno Kursten & Frank Druyts

  2. Amec Foster Wheeler, Clean Energy, Building 150, Harwell Oxford, OX11 0QB, Didcot, Oxfordshire, UK

    Nick R. Smart

  3. Department of Materials, Science and Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, 94720, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Digby D. Macdonald

  4. ONDRAF/NIRAS, The Belgian Agency for Radioactive Waste and Enriched Fissile Materials, Avenue des Arts 14, 1210, Brussels, Belgium

    Robert Gens

Authors
  1. Bruno Kursten
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  2. Frank Druyts
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  3. Nick R. Smart
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  4. Digby D. Macdonald
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  5. Robert Gens
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Kursten, B., Druyts, F., Smart, N.R. et al. Corrosion Considerations Related to Carbon Steel Radioactive Waste Packages Exposed to Cementitious Materials. MRS Advances 1, 4193–4199 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1557/adv.2017.208

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/adv.2017.208

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