Electroless nickel-plating for the PWSCC mitigation of nickel-base alloys in nuclear power plants

Abstract

The feasibility study has been performed as an effort to apply the electroless nickel-plating method for a proposed countermeasure to mitigate primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC) of nickel-base alloys in nuclear power plants. In order to understand the corrosion behavior of nickel-plating at high temperature water, the electrochemical properties of electroless nickel-plated alloy 600 specimens exposed to simulated pressurized water reactor (PWR) primary water were experimentally characterized in high temperature and high pressure water condition. And, the resistance to the flow accelerated corrosion (FAC) test was investigated to check the durability of plated layers in high-velocity water-flowing environment at high temperature. The plated surfaces were examined by using both scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) after exposures to the condition. From this study, it is found that the corrosion resistance of electroless nickel-plated Alloy 600 is higher than that of electrolytic plating in 290 °C water.