Corrosion behaviour of carbon steel, titanium and titanium alloy in simulated underground water in Beishan area preselected for nuclear waste repository in China

ABSTRACT

The groundwater will completely infiltrate to the surface of nuclear waste container after the closure of its deep geological disposal. Therefore, the corrosion behaviour of Q235 carbon steel, titanium and titanium alloy, which were the candidates as the container materials for high-level nuclear waste disposal in simulated groundwater solution of Beishan to be served as the preselected high-level nuclear waste disposal area in China at different temperatures, was studied through electrochemical methods including open circuit potential, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and potentiodynamic polarisation curve measurements. The results show that the corrosion rate of titanium and titanium alloy is lower than that of carbon steel at all temperatures, and they are more promising as container materials. Another phenomenon is that higher temperatures facilitate the protection performance of corrosion products compared with lower temperatures.

KEYWORDS:

• Corrosion
• carbon steel
• titanium
• titanium alloy
• underground water

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant <No. 51471160>.