FORMATION AND APPLICATION OF NANO NOBLE METAL PARTICLES TO MITIGATE STRESS CORROSION CRACKING IN BWR

摘要

Boiling water nuclear reactors (BWRs) throughout the world have applied the NobleChem™ (or noble metal chemical addition: NMCA) or Online NMCA (OLNC) process just before end-of-cycle shutdown or during an operation to mitigate the stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of structural materials in BWRs. When injected into BWR environments, the noble metal particles deposit on Type 304 stainless steel surfaces and reduce the corrosion potential, which decreases the propensity for SCC. Very fine noble metal particles are formed and able to potentially deposit inside a crack and maintain catalytic surfaces in the critical regions inside the crack. This paper demonstrates the sonochemcial method for producing Pt nanoparticles and describes the feasibility of using noble metal nanoparticles to mitigate the stress corrosion cracking of structural materials in BWRs , called Nano NobleChemT M. Several methods were explored to create Pt nanoparticles by the high intensity sonication of micron size of Pt and PtO_2. This new approach would also enable the application of noble metal technology while the reactor is in operation.