In this study, we investigated the suppression of the corrosion of cast iron in a copper–cast iron double-layered canister under local corrosion of the copper layer. The cold spray coating technique was used to insert metals with lower galvanic activity than that of copper, such as silver, nickel, and titanium, between the copper and cast iron layers. Electrochemically accelerated corrosion tests were performed on the galvanic specimens in KURT groundwater at a voltage of 1.0 V for a week. The results revealed that copper corrosion was evident in all galvanic specimens of Cu–Ag, Cu–Ni, and Cu–Ti. By contrast, the copper was barely corroded in the Cu–Fe specimens. Therefore, it was concluded that if an inactive galvanic metal is applied to the areas where local corrosion is concerned, such as welding parts, the disposal canister can overcome local or non-uniform corrosion of the copper canister for long periods.

One of the options for spent fuel dry storage systems is to store them in canisters using metal or concrete casks close to shore. The interaction between the austenitic stainless steel and the chloride atmosphere generated from the sea creates detrimental conditions leading to chloride induced stress corrosion cracking (CISCC) in the canister. The corrosion integrity of the canister in the concrete cask is very important because the canister is sealed and used for a long period of time. A canister made of austenitic stainless steel has several welding lines on the wall and lid, which are generated during the welding process and have high residual tensile stress. The interaction between the austenitic stainless steel and the chloride atmosphere generated from the sea creates detrimental conditions leading to chloride induced stress corrosion cracking (CISCC) in the canister. The corrosion integrity of the canister in the concrete cask is very important because the canister is sealed and used for a long period of time. In order to evaluate such soundness, an accelerated test capable of simulating the CISCC crack propagation phenomenon of the canister weld is required. In this study, a test device for performing the CISCC simulation test was constructed using the DCPD device. The direct current potential drop (DCPD) technique is a widely accepted method of monitoring crack initiation and growth in controlled laboratory tests. Total 10 types of test specimens with varying welds, base metal, salinity and stress were selected and a sealed chamber with DCPD test apparatus were designed and constructed to evaluate them. The chamber for CISCC simulation was manufactured as a sealed with a solution containing 10% MgCl2. A 1/2 CT specimen with precracked pre-cracks was loaded into the prepared container, and gauze was attached from the bottom for smooth delivery to the specimen to facilitate penetration of chloride. After the test, the measured DCPD data were correlated with Electron Back scattered Diffraction (EBSD) data.

An austenitic stainless steel canister functions as a containment barrier for spent nuclear fuel and radioactive materials. The canister on the spent fuel storage system near the coastal area has several welding lines in the wall and lid, which have high residual tensile stresses after welding procedure. Interaction between austenitic stainless steel and chloride environment from a sea forms a detrimental condition causing chloride induced stress corrosion cracking (CISCC) in the canister. The South Korea is concerned with the dry storage of high-level spent nuclear fuel and radioactive wastes to be built on the site of a nuclear power plant. The importance of aging management has recently emerged for mitigating CISCC of dry storage canisters. When a corrosive pit is created by a localized corrosion in a sea water atmosphere, it initiates and grows as CISCC crack. Surface stress improvement works by inducing plastic strain which results in elastic relaxation that generates residual compressive stress. Surface stress improvement methods such as roller burnishing process can effectively mitigate the potential for CISCC of the canister external surfaces. The generation of compressive stress layer can inhibit the transition to cracking initiation. In this study, a flat roller burnishing process was applied as a prevention technology to CISCC of stainless steel canisters. Roller burnishing process parameters have been selected for 1:3 scale canister model having a diameter of 600 mm, a length of 1,000 mm and a thickness of 10 mm on the basis of the burnishing conditions available to control residual tensile stress of austenitic stainless steel plate specimens. The surface roughness of the scaled canister model was investigated using a surface roughness measurement equipment after roller burnishing treatment. The surface residual stresses of the scaled canister model were measured by a hole drilling contour method attached with strain gauge. The burnishing test results showed that the surface roughness of the scaled canister model was considerably improved with flat rollers having the tip width of 4 mm. The surface of the scaled canister model had significant residual compressive stress after burnishing treatment. The roller burnished canister with good surface roughness could reduce the number of crack initiation sites and the residual compressive stress formed on the welded surface might prevent the crack initiation by reducing tensile residual stress in the weld zone, finally leads to CISCC resistance.

Since spent nuclear fuel (SNF) should be isolated from the human life zone for at least 106 years, deep geological disposal (DGD) is considered a strong candidate for SNF management in many countries. Therefore, a disposal canister should be nearly immune to corrosion in such a long-term storage environment. Even though copper has a low corrosion rate of a few millimeters per million years in geological environments, the corrosion resistance of the copper welds must be preferentially validated, which inevitably occurs during the sealing of the disposal canister after the SNF is loaded. This is because the weld zone is a discontinuous area of microstructure, which can accelerate uniform and localized corrosion. In this study, the microstructural characteristics of copper welds in different welding conditions such as friction stir welding, electron beam welding, cold spray, were analyzed, focusing on the formation of microstructure, which affects resistance to corrosion. In addition, the microstructure and corrosion properties of the copper weld zone manufactured by recent wire-based additive manufacturing (AM) technology were experimentally evaluated. From this preliminary test result, it was found that the corrosion characteristics of the welds produced by the AM process using wire are comparable to those of the conventional forged copper plate.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether galvanic corrosion of copper occurs by inserting a third barrier layer with a higher corrosion potential than copper between copper and cast iron when the copper layer is locally perforated by pitting or partial corrosion. A triple layer composed of copper, inserted metal, and carbon steel was manufactured by cold spray coating of inserting metal powders such as Ag, Ni, and Ti on carbon steel plate followed by Cu coating on it. First, the corrosion properties were evaluated electrochemically for each metal coating. As a result of Tafel plot anaylsis in KURT groundwater condition, the corrosion potential of Fe (-567 mV) was much lower than that of Cu (-91 mV), and the corrosion potential of Ni (-150 mV) was also lower than that of Cu. Therefore, Ni was likely to corrode before Cu. However, the corrosion current of Ni was lower than that of the Cu. In the galvanic specimen where the copper and inserting metal were exposed together, Cu-Fe was much lower corrosion potential of -446 mV, and the corrosion potential of Cu-Ti, Cu-Ni, and Cu-Ag were slightly higher than that of Cu. Therefore, it seemed that Ag, Ni, and Ti all might promote galvanic corrosion of surrounding copper when the copper layer was perforated to the inserted metal layer. If the metal insertion presented in this study operates properly, the disposal container does not need to worry about the partial corrosion or non-uniform corrosion of external copper layer.

One of the options for spent fuel dry storage systems is to store them in canisters using metal or concrete casks close to shore. The interaction between the austenitic stainless steel and the chloride atmosphere generated from the sea creates detrimental conditions leading to chloride induced stress corrosion cracking (CISCC) in the canister. The corrosion integrity of the canister in the concrete cask is very important because the canister is sealed and used for a long period of time. A canister made of austenitic stainless steel has several welding lines on the wall and lid, which are generated during the welding process and have high residual tensile stress. The interaction between the austenitic stainless steel and the chloride atmosphere generated from the sea creates detrimental conditions leading to chloride induced stress corrosion cracking (CISCC) in the canister. The corrosion integrity of the canister in the concrete cask is very important because the canister is sealed and used for a long period of time. In order to evaluate such soundness, an accelerated test capable of simulating the CISCC crack propagation phenomenon of the canister weld is required. In this study, a test device for performing the CISCC simulation test was constructed using the DCPD device. The direct current potential drop (DCPD) technique is a widely accepted method of monitoring crack initiation and growth in controlled laboratory tests. In its simplest form it involves passing a constant current through the test piece and accurately measuring the electrical potential across the crack plane, and it is a suitable device to measure crack growth in real time. The requirements for the CISCC simulation test selected based on the literature search results include test material 316 L, load range 1.75YS, positive displacement load, and 7% MgCl2 concentration. In order to smoothly evaluate these various conditions, it was determined that it is advantageous to collect crack length data in real time using a DCPD device, rather than receiving and analyzing specimens maintained for a certain time in the chamber. Therefore, in this study, 4 types of test conditions in real time was built, and data collection on crack propagation could be performed in real time by using it.

Spent nuclear fuels in Korea are temporarily stored at the nuclear power plant site and it is expected that will become saturated from 2031. Deep geological disposal in engineered barrier system (EBS) is one of the most important options for disposing spent nuclear fuel. The disposal canister is the first barrier that prevents leakage of nuclides in the spent nuclear fuel to the environment. Therefore, the corrosion behavior of the canister materials are significant factors in determining the overall disposal period. Oxygen-free copper is the most widely used material for disposal canisters, and manufacturing methods include forging, cold spray, and electro-deposition. In this study, corrosion behavior of materials that have the potential to replace oxygen-free copper manufactured using various 3D printing method were analyzed. As a result of electrochemical analysis of various materials such as copper manufactured by the Atmospheric Plasma Spray (APS) process and Inconel 718 manufactured by the Direct Energy Deposition (DED) process, the possibility of replacing oxygen-free copper was confirmed.

To dispose of spent nuclear fuel, the most promising method is disposal in a deep geological repository with a multi-barrier system. Among the multi-barrier system, canisters are used to contain the spent nuclear fuel. A role of the canister is to withstand corrosion load from the deep geological environment as possible as long. Corrosion processes consist of corroding agents transport to the canister surface and electrochemical reactions between the corroding agents and the canister surface. According to previous King’s electrochemical experiments, the mass-transport rate of corroding agents is slower than the electrochemical reaction rate with copper when the canister is surrounded by dense bentonite blocks. Therefore, the mass-transport rate is a rate-determining step for the whole corrosion process. Despite of the importance of transportation of oxidizing agents in bentonite, the transportation process was not paid attention. For example, existing models which are called continuum models assumed that the corroding agents pass through the pore in the porous medium because the continuum model does not consider the fracture networks in the bentonite. Here we develop a dualpermeability and dual-porosity model. In this model, the transport of corroding agents is considered that they pass through fracture within the porous medium. The difference between the dual-permeability and dual-porosity model is whether the corroding agents can pass through the pore. The dual-permeability model assumed that the mass-transport occurs within both fracture and porous medium. On the other hand, the dual-porosity model assumed that the mass-transport occurs only within fractures. Through both models, we found that the transport rate in the fractures is much higher than through the pores, and the canister lifetime at a point where contacting the fracture tip is much shorter than other parts when the canister lifetime is calculated by the transport-governed condition. In addition, the temperature distributions in the fracture are different compared to the existing continuum model. Our results show the effect of fractures in terms of not only corroding agents transport but also the canister lifetime. We anticipate our model to be a first step for the corrosion estimation model coupled with fracture networks.

Corrosion of copper (Cu) canisters is one of the important factors to ensure the safety of a deep geological repository site. This is because the corrosion of a canister may induce failure of the canister which can lead to a release of radionuclides into the environment. Corrosion of canisters for highlevel wastes is affected by the following multiphysics: thermal-hydraulics, transportation of chemical species, chemical reactions, and interface reactions. This research aimed to develop a multiphysics numerical model for the corrosion of spent nuclear fuel canisters for a deep geological repository in South Korea. The multiphysics model is based on MOOSE (Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment) which uses a finite element method. In the multiphysics model, the following multiphysics are coupled and solved together for a deep geological repository design of South Korea: interface redox reactions, porous flow, and heat transport in porous flow. The proposed model was validated with experimental data before being applied to a KAERI reference disposal unit. It was found that the corrosion potential of a Cu canister shows an uneven distribution of corrosion potential along with the surface. In addition, top, bottom, and side surfaces of the canisters show a different lifetime and corrosion potential. Important redox reactions for corrosion are changed along with time from a reduction of O2 and anodic dissolution of Cu by Cl− to sulfidation of Cu and reduction of water. The proposed model will be coupled with some important chemical reactions in engineering buffers and will be the base for the understanding of the behavior of Cu canisters in the KAERI reference disposal unit.

The spent fuel dry storage canister is generally made of austenitic stainless-steel and has the role of an important barrier to encapsulate spent fuels and radioactive materials. The canister on the dry storage system has several welding lines in the wall and lid, which have high residual tensile stresses after welding procedure. Interaction between stainless steel and chloride environment from a sea results in an aged-related degradation phenomenon causing chloride induced stress corrosion cracking (CISCC) in the dry storage system. A pending issue to the interim storage of spent fuel awaiting repository disposal is their susceptibility to CISCC of stainless steel canisters. The available mitigation technology should be studied sufficiently to prevent the degradation phenomenon. This paper assesses stress-based mitigation to control residual tensile stress practically applicable to the atmospheric CISCC for the aging management of the stainless steel canisters. There are major components, that is, elevated tensile stress, susceptible material and corrosive environment that must be simultaneously present for CISCC degradation to occur. Surface stress improvement can effectively mitigate the potential for CISCC of the canister external surfaces. The potential deleterious effect of the additional work is negated by the presence of compressive residual stress, which removes the tensile stress needed for CISCC to occur. Surface stress improvement methods such as shock-based peening, shot peening and low plasticity burnishing can be applied for surface stress improvement of the canisters. Stress relaxation processes and advanced welding methods such as laser beam welding and friction stir welding can be also available to mitigate the susceptibility to CISCC. As the result assessing the stress-based mitigation technologies, promising candidate methods could be selected to reduce the residual tensile stresses and to control an aged-related degradation condition causing CISCC in the spent fuel dry storage canister.

One of the options for spent fuel dry storage systems is to store them in canisters using metal or concrete casks close to shore. The interaction between the austenitic stainless steel and the chloride atmosphere generated from the sea creates detrimental conditions leading to chloride induced stress corrosion cracking (CISCC) in the canister. The corrosion integrity of the canister in the concrete cask is very important because the canister is sealed and used for a long period of time. A canister made of austenitic stainless steel has several welding lines on the wall and lid, which are generated during the welding process and have high residual tensile stress. The interaction between the austenitic stainless steel and the chloride atmosphere generated from the sea creates detrimental conditions leading to chloride induced stress corrosion cracking (CISCC) in the canister. The corrosion integrity of the canister in the concrete cask is very important because the canister is sealed and used for a long period of time. In order to evaluate such soundness, an accelerated test capable of simulating the CISCC crack propagation phenomenon of the canister weld is required. In this study, the current status of CISCC simulation tests performed around the world to build a test equipment for the CISCC simulation accelerated test is investigated, and based on this, the test conditions suitable for the simulation test and specimen specifications are selected to establish the test equipment. The settings were performed. In consideration of the set device requirements, the essential limiting conditions for device manufacturing were derived, and detailed design was performed to satisfy them, and it was used to build a CISCC simulation test device for welding parts. The CISCC simulation test equipment requires performance to maintain the test temperature range of room temperature to 80°C and humidity 35 to 95%. In addition, it should be manufactured in consideration of humidity and temperature maintenance in the chamber of the complex corrosion tester, measures to prevent leakage of the connection part between the chamber and the salt water tank of the complex corrosion tester, and measures to supply stable salt water and maintain temperature in the salt water tank. Based on these contents, detailed specifications and design contents of the chloride stress corrosion cracking simulation test apparatus were presented in this study.

In this paper, an approach developed by the Finnish nuclear waste management organization, Posiva, for the construction license of a geological repository was reviewed. Furthermore, a computer program based on the approach was developed. By using the computer program, the lifetime of a copper disposal canister, which was a key engineered barrier of the geological repository, was predicted under the KAERI Underground Research Tunnel (KURT) geologic conditions. The computer program was developed considering the mass transport of corroding agents, such as oxygen and sulfide, through the buffer and backfill. Shortly after the closure of the repository, the corrosion depths of a copper canister due to oxygen in the pores of the buffer and backfill were calculated. Additionally, the long-term corrosion of a copper canister due to sulfide was analyzed in two cases: intact buffer and eroded buffer. Under various conditions of the engineered barrier, the corrosion lifetimes of the copper canister due to sulfide significantly exceeded one million years. Finally, this study shows that it is necessary to carefully characterize the transmissivity of rock and sulfide concentration during site characterization to accurately predict the canister lifetime.