Resistance of the welded joint of austenitic steel NEUTRONIT A 976 SM in the corrosive environment of boric acid

The paper deals with the influence of the operating environment on the safe resistance of the welded joint of the construction material used in the nuclear power industry in the production of spent nuclear fuel containers. This material contains a higher percentage of alloying boron and is used as a shielding construction material for neutron and gamma radiation. It is used to produce baskets for spent nuclear fuel containers. When the containers are being filled, the welded joint of the basket structure are briefly exposed to an aqueous boric acid solution. The aim of this work was to determine the effects of exposure to the corrosive boric acid environment on the mechanical properties of the material. Tensile tests on the original weld and post weld exposure in H₃BO₃ and corrosion cracking tests on unexposed welds were performed. The evaluation of the results revealed that the exposure to the corrosive environment of boric acid did not significantly affect the strength characteristics of the tested material NEUTRONIT A 976 SM.