Electrochemical corrosion studies of container materials in repository-relevant environments

The Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) of the United States Department of Energy (USDOE) is evaluating Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada to determine its suitability as a site for a mined geologic disposal system for the disposal of spent fuel and high-level nuclear waste. Framatome Cogema Fuels (FCF), as a part of the Management and Operating (M&O) team in support of the Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project (YAD), is responsible for designing and developing the waste package for this potential repository. As part of this effort, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), also a member of the M&O team is responsible for testing materials and developing models for the materials to be used in the waste package. Based on a literature review of the anticipated degradation modes that may occur under the repository-relevant environmental conditions, LLNL has identified a large number of engineering materials for the various components of the waste package. One step in evaluating the performance of these materials is to conduct preliminary tests under these repository-relevant environmental conditions. This report is aimed at presenting the results of scoping electrochemical cyclic potentiodynamic polarization (CPP) experiments using nine candidate waste package container materials in various environments.