Hydrogen water chemistry for BWRs: a status report on the EPRI development program

Abstract

Abstract Many boiling water reactors (BWRs) have experienced extensive intergranular stress corrosion cracking (IGSCC) in their austenitic stainless steel reactor coolant system piping, resulting in serious adverse impacts on plant capacity factors, O&M costs, and personnel radiation exposures. A major research program to provide remedies for BWR pipe cracking was co-funded by EPRI, GE, and the BWR Owners Group for IGSCC Research between 1979 and 1988. Results from this program show that the likelihood of IGSCC depends on reactor water chemistry (particularly on the concentrations of ionic impurities and oxidizing radiolysis products) as well as on material condition and the level of tensile stress. Tests have demonstrated that the concentration of oxidizing radiolysis products in the recirculating reactor water of a BWR can be reduced substantially by injecting hydrogen into the feedwater. Recent plant data show that the use of hydrogen injection can reduce the rate of IGSCC to insignificant levels if the concentration of ionic impurities in the reactor water is kept sufficiently low. This approach to the control of BWR pipe cracking is called hydrogen water chemistry (HWC). This paper presents a review of the results of EPRI's HWC development program from 1980 to the present. In addition, plans for additional work to investigate the feasibility of adapting HWC to protect the BWR vessel and major internal components from potential stress corrosion cracking problems are summarized.