Fine grain austenitic stainless steels developed by means of cold work and a heat treatment process
to improve the material properties for use in supercritical water-cooled power reactor (SCWR). The
corrosion and Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC) properties, were subsequently evaluated and described in
the present paper. Results of corrosion test indicated that the corrosion rates of fine grain 304L SS and fine
grain 310S SS were as low as 1/30~1/70 of those of the normal grain size Type 304L SS and Type 310S SS
at 550oC. It was found that the grain refinement improved corrosion resistance significantly in SCW. The
corrosion of austenitic stainless steel in super critical water consisted of both oxidization film growth and
release into water. Results of slow strain rate test (SSRT) showed that the inter granular (IG) SCC
susceptibility of fine grain material is low at 550oC and 290oC. From these results, fine grain materials are
considered to be promising candidates for application as SCWR core components.