Corrosion mechanisms of austenitic stainless steels in nitric media used in reprocessing plants

Austenitic stainless steels type 304L, 316L and 310Nb are largely used as structural materials for equipments handling nitric acid media in reprocessing plants. In almost all nitric media, these materials, protected by a chromium(III) oxide rich layer, remain in their passive state. However, in some particular nitric media, their corrosion potential may be shifted towards their transpassive domain. In this domain, they can suffer intergranular corrosion, even though they are not sensitized owing to their very low carbon content. The corrosion potential of the steel depends greatly on the cathodic reaction involved in the oxido-reduction process between the elements Fe, Cr, Ni of the steel and the oxidizing species of the medium. Three cases of an increase in the corrosion potential can be found in reprocessing media: pure nitric acid–water solutions, in which the cathodic reaction is the reduction reaction of HNO3; nitric acid media containing oxidizing species, in which the cathodic reaction is the reaction of reduction of the oxidizing species into the reduced one; nitric media containing metallic elements electrochemically more noble than the steels, causing galvanic coupling. In each case, the mechanism and the relevant situations we experimentally studied are described.