Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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Electrochemical corrosion behavior of atmospheric-plasma-sprayed copper as a coating material for deep geological disposal canisters

  • Received : 2023.05.14
  • Accepted : 2023.07.16
  • Published : 2023.11.25
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Abstract

Cu, which exhibits excellent corrosion resistance in underground environments, has been investigated as a canister material for use in the deep geological disposal of spent nuclear fuels. In this study, the technical viability of atmospheric plasma spraying for producing Cu-coated canisters was investigated. A high-purity Cu film (millimeter scale) was deposited onto a stainless-steel substrate using a plasma gun with a shroud structure. Potentiodynamic polarization studies revealed that the Cu film exhibited a sufficiently low corrosion rate in the groundwater electrolyte. In addition, no pitting corrosion was observed on the Cu film surface after accelerated corrosion studies. A prototype cylindrical Cu film was fabricated on a 1/20 scale on a stainless-steel tube to demonstrate the scalability of atmospheric plasma spraying in producing Cu-coated canisters.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea grant (2021M2E3A2041351) funded by the government of the Republic of Korea (Ministry of Science and ICT).

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