Corrosion mitigation in coolant systems in nuclear power plants

•A short review concerning corrosion mitigation in LWRs is presented.•The particular emphasis has been placed on environmental improvements.•Present data are based in the open scientific and technical literature since 1990.

Nuclear power plants have suffered various failures through corrosion causing economic losses, increasing the radiation exposure to personnel and increasing the possibility of environmental risk. Many examples of different corrosion mechanisms and their consequences for nuclear power plant (NPP) working conditions are recognized and described. Nevertheless, several issues related to the corrosion of materials used for NPP constructions are still unexplained. This paper gives short, basic information about selected methods of the corrosion reduction and corrosion inhibitors used in coolant systems in nuclear power plants, mainly in pressurized water reactors PWRs and boiling water reactors BWRs. Present data are based in the open scientific and technical literature since 1990.