The N. S. Savannah, the world’s first and only nuclear-powered merchant ship was built through the combined efforts of the Maritime Administration, U. S. Department of Commerce, and the Atomic Energy Commission. The vessel’s pressurized water reactor propulsion system requires a shipboard water-chemistry control program considerably different from that required in conventional marine practice. The development of this program was necessitated primarily for two reasons: (1) the susceptibility of austenitic stainless steel used in primary system piping and equipment to chloride and hydroxide stress corrosion and (2) the necessity of maintaining high purity water in the reactor system to minimize the radiation from radioactive corrosion products depositing on equipment.

Subject
Water, Reactors, Tubes, Condensates, Coolants, Condensers, Purification, Equipment, Boilers, Stainless steel, Steam, Chlorides, Conductivity
© 1968 Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of AMPP. Positions and opinions advanced in this work are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AMPP. Responsibility for the content of the work lies solely with the author(s).
1968
Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP)
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