Steam generator blowdown heat exchangers degradations operational experience on EDF French NPP fleet

The main function of the Steam Generator Blowdown System (SGBS) is to purify the secondary fluid from all kinds of pollutions: corrosion products from the secondary system, consequences of raw water pollutions through condenser's leakage, potential radiochemical pollutions resulting from Primary-to-Secondary leaks. The topic of this paper is to present the main SGBS dysfunctions linked to the degradation of the tubular heat exchangers, which sometimes can lead to integrity failure, through corrosion phenomenon. The degradation mechanisms have been characterized by various visual inspections and destructive examinations performed on pulled tubes and bundles. It appears that SGBS tubes suffer two main forms of corrosion. First, for the non-regenerative heat exchangers, where external surface of tubes is exposed to intermediate fluid, alkaline corrosion under tube sheet or shell-side baffles may occur. Caustic attack results from Na₃PO₄ decomposition by thermal or chemical process. Secondly, mainly for regenerative heat exchangers, pitting and under-deposits corrosion linked to lay-up conditions during outages. This kind of attack is the root cause of a potential 'domino effect': a steam jet from the leaking tube can induce mechanical and/or erosion on many tubes located in its vicinity. Concerning the external degradation by caustic corrosion, only design modifications and strong monitoring of the raw water inlet may able to limit the occurrence of tube perforation. The lay-up guidelines should be carefully followed to mitigate internal corrosion: a controlled atmosphere (limited humidity) and cleanliness of the tube (avoiding deposits formation on the bottom line) seem to be the main parameters