Stainless steel 304L (SS304L) has been selected as the material for canisters for spent fuel storage from three nuclear power plants in Taiwan. A crucial issue is extending the spent fuel storage safety standards of the canisters. The anti-saline corrosion abilities of three thermal spray coatings (i.e., Al, ZnAl, and 625 Inconel alloys) on the SS304L were evaluated by immersion in 3.5 wt % aqueous NaCl and with 0.025 g/cm² NaCl deposition at 80 °C and 80% relative humidity (RH) for 1000 h. The pristine thermal spray coatings were examined using the pull-off adhesion test to understand the adhesion strength, and Vickers hardness was measured for the mechanical properties of the three coatings. Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) was used to identify the porosities of the coatings. Furthermore, the surfaces of the specimens before and after corrosion were investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The composition and distribution of the oxide layers formed on the coating surfaces during corrosion were evaluated. Electrochemical measurement was also performed with the polarization method to quantify the corrosion property of the three thermal spray coatings. The results showed that the corrosion rate of Al coating was lowest from the Tafel analysis after the 1000 h corrosion test in 3.5% aqueous NaCl. In contrast, the corrosion rate of Inconel 625 was lowest after 1000 h of the NaCl deposition corrosion test in a controlled environment. Therefore, the ZnAl thermal spray coating is a potential protection layer, keeping in mind economic considerations, of SS304L for anti-corrosion in saline environments.

Stainless steels are used as canister materials for interim storage of spent fuel. Crevice corrosion has proved to be a safety concern of 304L stainless steel spent fuel canisters, when exposed to the saline environments of coastal sites. To study the effects of chloride concentration and test duration on the crevice corrosion behavior, and the effect of relative humidity on the initiation of discrete SCC cracks, a test program was conducted on the 304L steel specimens sprayed with synthetic sea water of 3.5 wt.%. The salt-deposited specimens, wrapped up with a crevice former to form a crevice configuration, were then exposed to an environment at 45 °C with a pre-set 45%, 55%, and 70% relative humidity (RH), for 400 h and 10,000 h, respectively. The surface features and crack morphology of the tested 304L stainless-steel specimens were examined by energy-dispersive spectrometry (EDS) and electron back scatter diffraction (EBSD). For the specimens deposited with a chloride concentration of 1 g/m², no cracks were found in the corroded regions after 400-h exposure, whereas SCC cracks were observed with the specimens tested for 10,000 h at all three pre-set relative humidity. The specimens tested at the pre-set relative humidity 45% are characterized with discrete SCC cracks, but, on the other hand, those exposed to the environments of 55% and 70% relative humidity show SCC cracks of distinct features. From the results of 10,000-h tests, it is inferred that the chloride concentration threshold for SCC initiation of 304L stainless steel at 45 °C is between 0.1 g/m² and 1 g/m².

Cast austenitic stainless steel (CASS) often contains high contents of silicon, phosphorus, and sulfur to prompt low melting phases to form in the welds. As a result, welding defects can be induced to degrade the welds. This study’s purpose was to investigate the effects of electromagnetic stirring (EMS) on the CASS weldments. The results showed that the ferrites in the heat affected zone (HAZ) had tortuous grain boundaries, while those that were close to the fusion lines had transformed austenites. EMS could reduce the influence of the welding heat to make the grain boundaries less tortuous and the transformed austenites smaller. Although their temperature profiles were almost the same, the gas-tungsten-arc-welding (GTAW) weld had smaller grains with massive ferrite colonies and more precipitates, while the GTAW+EMS weld had denser ferrite colonies with multi-orientations, but fewer precipitates. The hardness of the base metals and HAZs were typically higher than that of the welds. For both of the welds, the root was the region with the highest hardness. The hardness decreased from the root to the cap regions along the thickness direction. The GTAW weld had a higher hardness than the GTAW+EMS weld. At room temperature, the GTAW+EMS weld had a higher notched tensile strength and elongation than the GTAW weld. This could be attributed to the observation that the GTAW+EMS weld had dense and intersecting dendrites and that more austenites were deformed during tensile testing.

Crevice corrosion has become an important issue of the safety of AISI 304L austenitic stainless steel canister when exposed to the chloride environments located in coastal areas. Moreover, dust deposited on the canister surface may enhance the corrosion effect of 304L stainless steel. In this work, white emery was adopted to simulate the dust accumulated on the as-machined specimen surface. To investigate the effect of deposited white emery, chloride concentration, and relative humidity on the crevice corrosion behavior, an experiment was conducted on 304L stainless steel specimens at 45 °C with 45%, 55%, and 70% relative humidity (RH) for 7000 h. The surface features and crack morphology of the tested 304L stainless steel specimens were examined by SEM equipped with energy-dispersive spectrometry (EDS) and electron back scatter diffraction (EBSD). From the experimental results, a threshold RH for the stress corrosion cracking (SCC) initiation of AISI 304L austenitic stainless steel with different concentrations of chloride was proposed.

This study investigated the impact of electromagnetic stirring (EMS) on nickel-base alloy welds prepared with the gas tungsten arc welding process. Alloy 52 and its variants, Alloy 52M and Alloy 52MSS, were carefully evaluated with their weld microstructure and mechanical properties. The results showed that the welds exhibited a typical microstructure of dendrites, and that the dendrites could be refined by electromagnetic stirring. Meanwhile, with an application of EMS, the precipitates became smaller and more evenly distributed in the inter-dendritic areas. Ti(N,C)s, Nb/(Nb,Si)Cs, and large-scale Laves phase with (Nb,Mo,Ti)Cs were the precipitates present in the Alloy 52, Alloy 52M, and Alloy 52MSS welds, respectively. With the refined microstructure, both Alloy 52 and Alloy 52M welds were observed to have an increase in their tensile strength, with a decrease in their elongations. Comparatively, for the Alloy 52MSS weld, the tensile strength was enhanced along with a slight increase in elongation. Deep and dense dimples were a dominant feature of low-Nb-additions welds, and dendrite-like features were found prevalent among the Alloy 52MSS welds. With EMS, the dimples of Alloy 52 welds and the dendrite-like features of Alloy 52MSS welds became finer, while the dimples of Alloy 52M welds grew coarser.