Chemistry and Corrosion Research and Development for Water Cooling Circuits of EU DEMO

Chemistry and Corrosion Research and Development for Water Cooling Circuits of EU DEMO

Chemistry and Corrosion Research and Development for Water Cooling Circuits of EU DEMO 150 150 UKAEA Opendata
UKAEA-CCFE-CP(20)80

Chemistry and Corrosion Research and Development for Water Cooling Circuits of EU DEMO

The European DEMO design will potentially use single phase water cooling in various components that require protection against corrosion damage. Coolant conditions will be similar to fission PWRs but with additional considerations arising from the materials of choice (Eurofer, CuCrZr), 14 MeV neutron irradiation, the presence of tritium, and strong magnetic fields. Presently many aspects of the water chemistry and corrosion behaviour are not well defined, and several strands of work, reported here, are ongoing to address these challenges under the EUROfusion framework, within input from industrial partners. The foundation of this work is a review of relevant operating experience from fission LWR plant to understand the potential for technology transfer, supported by radiolysis modelling to assess options for suppression of oxidising species under high energy neutron irradiation. This has specifically considered the interaction of water with Eurofer-97, utilised in the WCLL blanket concept; high temperature water corrosion testing facilities have also been employed to expand the corrosion database. Results are reported from an approach using micro-scale samples of structural alloys to study their SCC susceptibility and a small-scale flow cell approach for in situ corrosion measurement under changing chemistry conditions. Initial experimental trials into the effect of intense magnetic fields on corrosion indicate that there is the potential for an effect. Further work is reported here aimed at identifying the nature and extent of any impact on corrosion behaviour of the main circuit materials, Eurofer-97 and AISI 316LN in high temperature water. In-vessel cooling of the divertor will use CuCrZr under lower-temperature, high flow conditions, which will lead to different considerations, including the potential for flow assisted corrosion. Additionally, high, unidirectional, heat fluxes lead to a radial temperature profile and the possibility of sub-nucleate boiling. A separate test set-up, currently under construction, to expand this corrosion database is described.

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Conference:
30th Symposium on Fusion Technology (SOFT), Giardini Naxos, Messina, Sicily, 16-21 September 2018
Published date:
01/10/2019