Behaviour of Structural Materials: Japan

One of main problems to use lead alloys for nuclear systems such as ADS (Accelerator Driven Dystem) and FBR (Fast Breeder Reactors) is compatibility of steels with lead alloys. Mainly approaches from the following two directions have been made: 1) basic investigation on effects of various parameters to corrosion behaviour in liquid LBE (lead bismuth eutectic) investigation on applicability of candidate steels developed for FBR to LBE environment. Effects of temperature, oxygen concentration in LBE and contents of alloying elements, Cr, Ni, Si and Al in steels on corrosion behaviour are investigated in static liquid LBE. Drawing up the corrosion map in liquid LBE is the main goal in this study. In order to examine the applicability of candidate steels to LBE environment, some steels developed for FBR are used for corrosion tests in LBE. Furthermore, estimation of the predicted curves of the corrosion depth is the main goal