Investigation of the removal of nonradioactive corrosion product films using a low-pressure arc

Summary form only given, as follows. Most of radioactive solid wastes generated at time of operations or maintenance of atomic power plants are polluted near their surface. Therefore surface decontamination will make the treatment for final disposal and so on easier. One surface treatment technology using a low-pressure arc (LPA) has attracted considerable attention because it has the advantage of removing metal oxide film on metal used as a cathode selectively and quickly. So it allows removal of radionuclides present on or inside the oxide film found on the surface of radioactive metal wastes along with the oxide film itself. However there are few examples describing the application to the wastes generated from atomic power plants. So we chose four kinds of metal-alloys (SUS304, SUS316L, Inconel600, S50C) which are main materials of LWR metal constitution and formed the nonradioactive corrosion product films (CP) on these substrates by immersing themselves in water under conditions simulating a primary water-cooling line. Then argon LPA was applied to these CP and carbon steel with mill scale on the market.