AVS 50th International Symposium
    Advanced Surface Engineering Tuesday Sessions
       Session SE-TuA

Paper SE-TuA9
Surface Studies of the High Temperature Corrosion of Stainless Steel by Oxygen Contolled Lead-Bismuth Eutectic

Tuesday, November 4, 2003, 4:40 pm, Room 323

Session: High Temperature Protective Coatings
Presenter: A.L. Johnson, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Authors: A.L. Johnson, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
D. Parsons, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
J. Manzerova, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
D. Koury, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
B. Hosterman, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
D.L. Perry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
J.W. Farley, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Correspondent: Click to Email
There has been a resurgence of interest in the use of oxygen controlled Lead/Bismuth Eutectic (LBE) and similar high Z liquid metals as neutron spallation targets and coolants in advanced technology reactors. LBE was used in the Russian Alpha class nuclear submarines, with encouraging results. We have been investigating the corrosion of some western steels by oxygen controlled LBE in a Russian test loop using a number of techniques including SEM, EDAX, XPS and sputter depth profiling. We found for some mixtures of composition and surface preparation an order of magnitude lower oxidation and dissolution, associated with a change in morphology of the protective oxide layer. We shall discuss the effects of surface and near surface preparation and composition on this interesting oxidation/dissolution corrosion system.