The corrosion properties of Zr-Cr-NM alloy metallic waste form for longterm disposal

KAERI is conducting research on spent cladding hulls and additive metals to generate a solidifcation host matrix for the noble metal fssion product waste in anode sludge from the electro-refning process to minimize the volume of waste that needs to be disposed of. In this study, alloy compositions Zr-17Cr, Zr-22Cr, and Zr-27Cr were prepared with or without eight noble metals representing fuel waste using induction melting. The microstructures of the resulting alloys were characterized and electrochemical corrosion tests were conducted to evaluate their corrosion characteristics. All the compositions had better corrosion characteristics than other Zr-based alloys that were evaluated for comparison. Analysis of the leach solution after the corrosion test of the Zr-22Cr-8NM specimen indicated that the noble metals were not leached during corrosion under 500 mV imposed voltage, which simulates a highly oxidizing disposal environment. The results of this study confrm that Zr-Cr based compositions will likely serve as chemically stable waste forms