The use of molten halide salts as a primary coolant within next generation molten salt nuclear reactors (MSRs) has the potential to improve efficiency and nuclear reactor safety by operating at low pressures and high temperatures without boiling. However, these coolants will require the development of new corrosion resistant material systems that will have to meet or supersede existing standard codes for these systems. Therefore, new MSRs will require validation and testing of new material systems that can produce robust component structures and enable them to withstand these corrosive environments. Furthermore, any next generation process to apply protective coatings must allow for a conformal, thick, dense, and bonded material to be formed onto an ASME code approved material (e.g. type 316H stainless steel) that will comprise the structure of heat exchanger and containment vessel components.

Within this context, Faraday Technology Inc. in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Lab and Quintus Technologies is working to develop and demonstrate the effectiveness of a low cost and high value corrosion-resistant alloy coating for next generation molten salt reactors. The manufacturing process involves the application of a functionally graded NiMo coating by electrodeposition onto 316H alloy substrates and their subsequent high temperature corrosion evaluation in molten fluoride salt at 700°C. After application the components were hot isostatically pressed (HIPped; at Quintus) to create a diffusion bond between the coating and alloy substrate. Initially, 316H alloy coupons were coated for evaluation (Figure 1 Left) in Mo capsules with static FLiNaK salt known to be corrosive due to metallic impurities. The next stage of testing involved evaluating coatings on the inner diameter of 316H tubes (25mm outer diameter; Figure 1 Middle). Coated tubes (75mm long) had coated endcaps welded to either end and were filled with the same FLiNaK salt and tested for 500 h at 700°C and 1000 h at 750°C. In addition, the microstructure and salt performance of butt welds were evaluated for joints between coated 316H tubes and joints between coated and uncoated 316H tubes. Results from the static capsule testing will be presented including the effect of coating composition and heat treating conditions on the depth of attack in the molten salt as feedback for the coating development process. The final phase of testing will include 200 mm long coated 316H tube sections in the hot and cold legs of a flowing FLiNaK thermal convection loop experiment which is currently being fabricated (Figure 1 R).

Acknowledgements: The financial support of DOE Contract No. DE-SC0019602 is acknowledged.

Figure 1: Corrosion characterization test plan. (Left) static coupon studies, (Middle) static pipe studies, and (Right) continuous flow loop pipe studies.