Development of cold sprayed Cu coating for canister

Cold sprayed Cu deposition was studied for the application of outer part of canister for high level nuclear waste. Five commercially available pure Cu powders were analyzed and sprayed by high pressure cold spray system. Electrochemical corrosion test using potentiostat in 3.5% NaCl solution was conducted as well as microstructural analysis including hardness and oxygen content measurements. Overall evaluation of corrosion performance of cold sprayed Cu deposition is inferior to forged and extruded Cu plates, but some of Cu depositions are comparable to Cu plates. The simulated corrosion test in 200m underground cave is still in progress. The effect of cold spray process parameters was also studied and the results show that the type of nozzle is the most important other than powder feed rate, spray distance, and scan speed. 1/10 scale miniature of canister was manufactured confirming that the production of full scale canister is possible