Stress-Corrosion Cracking of Low-Strength Carbon Steels in Candidate High-Level Waste Repository Environments.

摘要

A survey of the literature was performed to identify potential stress-corrosion cracking agents for low-strength carbon and low alloy steels in repository environments. It was found that a number of potent cracking agents are present, but stress-corrosion cracking is relatively unlikely in the bulk repository environment because of their low concentration. On the other hand, concentration of these species may occur by a number of mechanisms, and thus it is conceivable that the waste package could fail prematurely by stress corrosion. Accordingly, it is recommended that the lower concentration limits for potential cracking agents be identified under typical repository environments, in conjunction with modeling studies to assess the likelihood that the concentrating mechanisms will operate and to bound the upper limits of concentration for each mechanism.