Oxidation and Stress Corrosion Cracking of Stainless Steels in SCWRs

摘要

SCWRs are high-temperature, high-pressure, water-cooled reactors that operate above the thermodynamic critical point of water (374°C, 22.1 MPa). The SCWR offers many advantages compared to state-of- the-art LWRs including the use of a single phase coolant with high enthalpy, the elimination of components such as steam generators and steam separators and dryers, a low coolant mass inventory resulting in smaller components, and a much higher efficiency (～44% vs. 33% in current LWRs). In these systems high pressure (25 MPa) coolant enters the vessel at 280°C which is heated to about 500°C and delivered to a power conversion cycle. Supercritical water (SCW) exhibits properties significantly different from those of liquid water below the critical point. Supercritical water acting essentially as a non-polar dense gas with solvation properties approaching those of a low-polarity organic. In this conditions, can dissolve gases like oxygen to complete miscibility. Depending upon what species are present and how much oxygen is present in the solution can becomes a very aggressive oxidising environment. Most of the data on corrosion in supercritical water are from fossil plant or oxidation waste disposal systems. However there is very limited data on corrosion in low conductivity de-aerated SCW and less on stress corrosion cracking behaviour under operating conditions foreseen for SCWR. Candidate materials for structural components are materials for high temperatures and include ferritic-martensitic alloys; oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) ferritic/martensitic steels and strengthened steels by precipitation and for lower temperatures the austenitic stainless steels, such as 304 and 316, used in the LWR. Low swelling austenitic steels are also of high interest for areas with high dpa and high temperature. A review of the available information on corrosion and stress corrosion behaviour of different types of stainless steels in supercritical water at high temperatures is presented in this paper. The experimental programme to be performed in our lab for the study of these topics is discussed.