Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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APPLICATION OF COLD SPRAY COATING TECHNIQUE TO AN UNDERGROUND DISPOSAL COPPER CANISTER AND ITS CORROSION PROPERTIES

  • Received : 2011.03.17
  • Accepted : 2011.05.30
  • Published : 2011.12.25
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Abstract

A cold spray coating (CSC) of copper was studied for its application to a high-level radioactive waste (HLW) disposal canister. Several copper coatings of 10 mm thick were fabricated using two kinds of copper powders with different oxygen contents, and SS 304 and nodular cast iron were used as their base metal substrates. The fabricated CSC coppers showed a high tensile strength but were brittle in comparison with conventional non-coating copper, hereinafter defined to as "commercial copper". The corrosion behavior of CSC coppers was evaluated by comparison with commercial coppers, such as extruded and forged coppers. The polarization test results showed that the corrosion potential of the CSC coppers was closely related to its purity; low-purity (i.e., high oxygen content) copper exhibited a lower corrosion potential, and high-purity copper exhibited a relatively high corrosion potential. The corrosion rate converted from the measured corrosion current was not, however, dependent on its purity: CSC copper showed a little higher rate than that of commercial copper. Immersion tests in aqueous HCl solution showed that CSC coppers were more susceptible to corrosion, i.e., they had a higher corrosion rate. However, the difference was not significant between commercial copper and high-purity CSC copper. The decrease of corrosion was observed in a humid air test presumably due to the formation of a protective passive film. In conclusion, the results of this study indicate that CSC application of copper could be a useful option for fabricating a copper HLW disposal canister.

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References

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