Development and Deployment of Advanced Corrosion Monitoring Systems for High-Level Waste Tanks

This paper describes the results of a collaborative technology development program, sponsored by the Tanks Focus Area, to use electrochemical noise (EN) for corrosion monitoring in underground storage tanks. These tanks, made of carbon or stainless steels, contain high-level radioactive liquid waste (HLW) generated by weapons production or radioactive liquid waste from nuclear fuel reprocessing activities at several Department of Energy (DOE) sites. The term EN is used to describe low frequency fluctuations in current and voltage measurements associated with corrosion. In their most basic form, EN-based corrosion monitoring systems measure and record these fluctuations over time from electrodes immersed in the environment of interest--in this case, radioactive tank waste. The resulting EN signals have characteristic patterns for different corrosion mechanisms. In recent years, engineers and scientists from several DOE sites, in collaboration with several private companies, have conducted laboratory studies and field applications to correlate the EN signals with corrosion mechanisms active in the radioactive waste tanks. The participating DOE sites are Hanford, Savannah River, Oak Ridge Reservation and the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. The commercial vendors have included HiLine Engineering and Fabrication, Inc., EIC Laboratories, Inc., and AEA Technologies. Successful deployment of the EN technology will yield improved information of waste tank corrosion conditions, better tank management, and lower overall cost