Water chemistry and behavior of materials in PWRs and BWRs

Water chemistry plays a major role in corrosion and in activity transport in NPP's. Although a full understanding of all mechanisms involved in corrosion does not exist, controlling of the water chemistry has achieved good results in recent years. Water chemistry impacts upon the operational safety of LWR's in two main ways: integrity of pressure boundary materials and, activity transport and out-of-core radiation fields. This paper will describe application of water chemistry control in operating reactors to prevent corrosion. Some problems experienced in LWR's will be reviewed for the design of the nuclear heating reactors (NHR). (author). 18 refs, 10 figs, 5 tabs