Characteristics of steam generator tube deposits in an operating pressurized water reactor

The objective of this study is to characterize steam generator tube deposits collected from an operating pressurized water reactor. The deposits were mostly composed of magnetite and contained small amounts of trevorite, jacobsite, and metallic copper. The concentration of impurities within the pores of the deposits was estimated to be 2 × 106-3 × 107 for copper and 2 × 105-5 × 105 for sodium, chloride, and sulfur. The deposit density was estimated to be approximately 2.72 g/cm3. The porosity and mean pore diameter of the deposits measured by mercury intrusion porosimetry were approximately 9.82% and 196.20 nm, respectively.