Corrosion of Stainless Steels for Water Pools of Nuclear Power Plants and Relevant Researches

The corrosion problems of stainless steel components of water pools including spent fuel pools and refueling cavities in pressurized water reactor (PWR) nuclear power plants in the world and relevant researches are reviewed. Investigations in USA have identified that there are stress corrosion cracking, intergranular corrosion, pitting, crevice corrosion problems in the components. With the ageing of the plants, the leakage events caused by these corrosion problems are increasing. Although the service time of domestic plants has not been long, stress corrosion cracking events have occurred in the stainless steel liners of some water pools, and various localized corrosion issues have attracted more and more attention. From the perspective of nuclear safety, it is necessary to study deeply the localized corrosion in relevant service environments especially concrete side of 304L and S32101 stainless steel welds used in the pools of domestic plants, to understand the relations among the corrosion behavior, corrosion environment and material characteristics, and to develop protective measures.