Characterisation of material behaviour in high temperature aqueous environments by means of electrochemical techniques

Electrochemical measurements in solutions simulating power plant coolants are complicated by the low conductivity of the water, especially in the case of boiling water reactor (BWR) environments. To be able to obtain useful information also in BWR conditions, electrochemical techniques based on a thin-layer electrode arrangement are introduced. This arrangement makes it possible to perform voltammetric and electrochemical impedance measurements in high-temperature water with a room temperature conductivity (κ) as low as 0.1 μScm-1. A combination of these results with those obtained by means of measuring the resistance of the surface film using the contact electric resistance (CER) technique facilitates versatile characterisation of oxide film behaviour. Examples are given on impedance and CER measurements of the oxide films formed on AISI 316 stainless steel in high temperature high purity (κ < 0.3 μScm-1) water and on OX18H10T stainless steel in VVER water. Correlations between temperature, hydrogen and oxygen content of the solution and the oxide behaviour are discussed