Method of reducing the radioactivity in nuclear power plants

Purpose: To reduce the radioactivity in nuclear power plants in contact with pure water at high temperature and high pressure. Method: For suppressing the deposition of radioactive materials in nuclear reactor coolants to the structural materials, oxide layers which are relatively porous but have a sufficient layer thickness are formed as the primary treatment and then thin but dense layers are formed as the secondary treatment. Oxidization is applied by means of heated water or steams with less oxidizing property in the first treatment, while oxidizing treatment is applied with heated water and steams at high oxidizing property in the second treatment, because the effect of suppressing corrosion is insufficient only by means of the membranes in the primary treatment, while the layers formed by the secondary treatment alone are liable to be injured and degraded. Since coolants for use in BWR type reactors usually contain about 200 ppb of dissolved oxygen, it is desirably from 40 to 100 ppb for the primary treatment and from 400 ppb to 8 ppb for the secondary treatment, and non-oxidating heated gases at high purity such as Ar, N2, He may be used in addition to heated water and steams. (Kawakami, Y.)