Effects of dissolved hydrogen on general corrosion behavior and oxide films of alloy 690TT in PWR primary water

The effect of dissolved hydrogen (DH) on the general corrosion behavior and oxide films of Alloy 690TT is investigated in simulated primary water at 330 °C. With increasing DH, the structure of oxide film significantly changed and the corrosion rate decreased. At DH = 5 cm3/kg H2O, the oxide layer was thick, and consisted of outer Ni oxide layer and inner Cr2O3 layer. Under the conditions of DH = 35 and 100 cm3/kg H2O, the oxide films grew thinner and composed of outer polyhedral spinel oxide particles such as NiCr2O4 or NiCrFeO4 and an intermediate metallic Ni-rich layer, with inner Cr2O3 layer. The general corrosion rate significantly decreased by about 72% as DH concentration increased from 5 to 35 cm3/kg H2O. In the range of 35-65 cm3/kg H2O, the corrosion rate slightly decreased with increasing DH concentration. However, no further changes were observed in the range of 65-100 cm3/kg H2O.