LNM operates several sophisticated high-temperature water loop systems for corrosion and water chemistry investigations in simulated boiling and pressurized water reactor environments. The autoclaves are equipped with electro-mechanical and servo-pneumatic mechanical loading facilities and on-line crack initiation and growth measurement tools (reversed direct current potential drop, compliance and electrochemical noise method) to study environmentally-assisted cracking and environmental effects on the fatigue and fracture behavior of LWR structural materials and fuel claddings. One system is located in an A lab for investigations on irradiation-assisted stress corrosion cracking. Various electrochemical tools (potentiostats, electrochemical noise and impedance measurement devices, complement the corrosion characterization tools. The corrosion studies are usually supported by various post-test characterization methods, e.g., by electron microscopy (SEM, TEM) and surface analytics (SIMS, EPMA, XPS).
