Abstract
The interaction between mild steel nuclear waste storage containers and technetium ions is not well understood. Technetium is often found as an oxidized pertechnetate (TcO4 -) anion at nuclear waste storage sites. This study is aimed at identifying whether TcO4 - anions present a corrosion risk to mild steel nuclear waste storage tanks. The interaction of mild steel alloy A537 class 1 with rhenium, a technetium surrogate, was studied. Potentiodynamic polarization tests evaluated electrochemical behavior and the surface morphology was studied using scanning electron microscopy and optical microscopy. Potentiodynamic polarization experiments were conducted in 1.0M NaNO3 + 0.1M NaOH and 1.0M NaNO3 + 0.1M NaOH + 0.02M NaReO4. Three different temperatures were used in testing, namely, (i) ambient temperature, (ii) 50oC and (iii) 80oC. Sodium perrhenate was observed to inhibit the corrosion of the mild steel A537 samples. However, corrosion rates were found to increase with increasing temperatures both in the presence and absence of perrhenate.
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