Corrosion of HT-9 in Contact with Molten Lead Bismuth Eutectic with and without Simultaneous 6 MeV Proton Irradiation

A major unknown in the development of materials for advanced nuclear systems is related to the question of corrosive materials degradation under "in-service" operating conditions. In this work, we describe the irradiation/corrosion experiment, namely ICE(*), performed at LANL within the Los Alamos National Laboratory-University of California Berkeley (LANL-UCB) collaboration. The purpose of this work is to study synergistic effects of irradiation on steel corrosion, and investigate if and how a steady state concentration of defects continuously created by displacement cascades affects surface chemistry such as oxidation or dissolution. ICE(*) builds-up on the experience gained in a previous ICE-1 experiment, where HT-9 steel was exposed to proton irradiation in the presence of Lead Bismuth Eutectic (LBE) at high temperature. ICE(*) constitutes a natural continuation with improved capabilities, i.e. monitoring Oxygen content in LBE, ability to reach higher temperatures and dose values.