Rs. Lillard et Dp. Butt, A method for measuring the corrosion rate of materials in spallation neutron source target/blanket cooling loops, MATER CHAR, 43(2-3), 1999, pp. 135-145
This paper summarizes the ongoing evaluation of the susceptibility of mater
ials in accelerator target/blanket cooling loops to corrosion. To simulate
the exposure environment in a target/blanket cooling loop, samples were irr
adiated by an 800MeV proton beam at the A6 Target Station of the Los Alamos
Neutron Science Center (LANSCE). To accomplish this, a cooling water loop
capable of exposing corrosion samples to an 800MeV proton beam at currents
upwards of 1 mA was constructed. This loop allowed control and evaluation h
ydrogen water chemistry, water conductivity, and solution pH. Specially des
igned ceramic sealed samples were used to measure the real-time corrosion r
ates of materials placed directly in the proton beam using electrochemical
impedance spectroscopy (EIS). EIS was also used to measure real-time corros
ion rates of samples that were out of the proton beam and "downstream" from
the in-beam samples. These out-of-beam probes primarily examined the effec
ts of long lived water radiolysis products from proton irradiation on corro
sion rates. An overview of the LANSCE corrosion loop, the corrosion probes,
and data from an in-beam alloy 718 probe are presented. Published by Elsev
ier Science Inc.