Pitting and General Corrosion Susceptibilities of Materials for High Level Radioactive Waste (HLW) Disposal

The disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) in deep stable geological formations is accepted at an international level to be the most promising option for its long-term management. The supercontainer concept is currently being considered as the Belgian reference design, wherein the waste will be stored in geological stable clay formations. The outer barrier of the supercontainer is the envelope, which should be made of a corrosion-resistant material as it will be in contact with the aggressive species leaching from the host rock (i.e., chloride) and diffusing through the cementitious barriers of the disposal system. Polarization measurements are carried out to study the pitting susceptibility and the uniform corrosion of possible candidate materials in chloride-rich concrete pore solutions, aerated by high-purity oxygen. The tests are carried out at a deep soil-representative temperature of 60 °C. All materials showed high pitting resistance in aerated concrete pore solutions and can withstand chloride concentrations up to 1 M. Regular 316L and LDX2304 stainless steel also showed good corrosion resistance and can serve as a more economical alternative. The pH of the used pore solutions did affect the measured corrosion rate irrespective of the alloying elements inside the steel grades.