Prevention of stress-corrosion cracking in nuclear waste storage tanks

Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) has occurred in the early versions of carbon steel primaries of nuclear waste tanks at the Savannah River Plant. (Secondary containment was provided by a vessel surrounding the lower portion of the primary tank.) Evaporated alkaline nitrate wastes in the form of crystallized salts are being dissolved from some of these tanks for transfer to new tanks of a different design. To prevent the SCC sequence from occurring during salt dissolution, the levels of inhibitors required to prevent cracking at yield stresses were determined. Special statistically designed experiments were performed to evaluate the probability of cracking under the combined influences of nitrate, nitrite, hydroxide, and temperature. Experimentlly, samples were tested by a potentially controlled constant extension rate test and by wedge opening loaded samples. Two equations were derived by multivariable regression analyses that correlated probability of cracking as the dependent variable to nitrate, nitrite, and hydroxide concentrations and temperature as the independent variables. From these equations, simple operating standards were developed by setting the probability of cracking equal to zero and solving for the four independent variables. 15 references, 15 figures, 8 tables