Stress corrosion of unalloyed steels in geological storage conditions

The concept retained for high level and years living radioactive waste disposal is the underground storage. It is then necessary to know the behaviour in time (about 10000 years) of the different constituent elements of the containment. The storage site chosen is the Bures' ones, presenting a clay formation at 600 m of depth. Each compartment is separated of a sufficient distance in order to profit of the thermal dispersion effect in the rock for optimizing the cooling of the package. In this work, has been used an unalloyed steel sur-container. The aim is to understand the resistance of the material under corrosion and loading, and particularly the stress corrosion which is a particular case of cracking assisted by environment. The material studied is a weld of two unalloyed steels obtained by electron beam. Slow traction tests have been carried out in an autoclave in the following experimental conditions: interstitial water in equilibrium with a helium-CO2 mixture 5.4 per thousand under 50 bar and at a temperature of 90 C. The results show an influence of the hydrogen corrosion on the mechanical behaviour of the material and particularly a decrease of the size of the reduction in area, which is practically unexisting in the case of the melted zone. These results are explained into details. (O.M.)