Corrosion behavior of EUROFER steel in flowing eutectic Pb–17Li alloy

Reduced-activation-ferritic-martensitic (RAFM) steels are considered for application in fusion technology as structural materials. The alloy EUROFER 97 was developed on the basis of the experience gained with steels of the OPTIFER, MANET and F82H-mod. type. These alloys will be in contact with the liquid breeder Pb–17Li and their corrosion behavior is of significance for their successful application. Corrosion tests of EUROFER 97 in flowing Pb–17Li at 480 °C were performed up to about 12 000 h to evaluate the kinetics of the dissolution attack. The exposed samples were analysed by metallography and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with EDX. The results show that EUROFER 97 is attacked by flowing liquid Pb–17Li with a flow velocity of about 0.3 m/s similar to the earlier examined steels and that the typical steel elements are dissolved. The observed attack is of uniform type with values of about 90 μm/year. The corrosion rate is a somewhat smaller for EUROFER compared to the other RAFM steels but with equal activation energy.