Investigation of monitoring technologies for heat transfer corrosion in reprocessing equipment

Two types of in-situ monitoring techniques using electrical resistance methods were developed for estimating the wall thinning of heat transfer tubes used in evaporators for Purex process on commercial reprocessing plants. The corrosion rate is accelerated with oxidizer ions formed by the thermal decomposition of nitric acid under heat flux. An in-situ corrosion sensor was developed for estimating the corrosion rate of heat transfer tubes using miniature heat transfer tube specimens under heat flux control. It is possible to simulate the heating condition as same as heat transfer tubes. The applicability was evaluated by setting it in gas-liquid separator in a mock-up evaporator for acid recovery. The sensitivity of electric resistance methods is increased with decreasing the residual thickness of probe tube. The other is the electrical potential drop method using direct current so-called the field signature method. It is applicable to estimate the corrosiveness of reprocessing nitric acid by setting it on the drain tube in evaporator. The sensitivity to the thinning rate of tubes wall machined artificially was obtained within ±10% to the wall thickness. It has the non-sensitive region nearly 0.1mm up to begin working. The practical applicability has been also evaluated by setting it in a mock-up evaporator. (author)