Corrosion experiment for CLAM and SS316L in liquid LiPb loop of China

The liquid metal LiPb blanket design is one of the most promising designs for future fusion power reactors and under wide research in the world. LiPb loops are indispensable to research on characteristics of liquid LiPb such as its corrosive effect on structural materials on the blankets and so on, and have been built in China. Corrosion experiments using flowing LiPb with a speed of 0.08 m/s at 480 °C for 2500 h were carried out on CLAM steel and on 316L stainless steel for comparison. The exposed samples were observed and analyzed by metallography and Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy after 500, 1000, 1500, 2000, and 2500 h corrosion experiments. The results show that the corrosion of CLAM steel is non-uniform and the weight loss was about 0.38 mg/cm2 after 2500 h of exposure, while that for 316L was visible and very serious and the weight loss was about 35.7 mg/cm2 after 2500 h of exposure.