Abstract
Over the past 100 years, many presentations have been made, and papers published, on the corrosion of buried metallic structures. This corrosion is due to the electrochemical activity of the surrounding soil. Since the characteristics of the soil play an important role in the rate of attack, it is essential that serious considerations be given to on-site soil characteristics, prior to construction or modification of any facility.
Nuclear facilities are particularly under severe scrutiny by a concerned populous. Leaking underground pipes or storage tanks, which may or may not contain radioactive material can not, and will not be tolerated. While much attention has been given and extensive research and testing has been performed to control corrosion on the process side of equipment, it is only within this decade that concern for, and action taken, to mitigate corrosion from the environmental side.
This paper will discuss corrosion on buried process piping and tanks at a nuclear fuel facility, and the steps taken to design a system to control underground corrosion. Data collected over the past seven years has indicated that cathodic protection is needed to supplement the regular use of high integrity, corrosion resistant coatings, wrapping systems, special backfills and insulation material.
