Several candidate container materials have been studied in modified Yucca Mountain (YM) ground water in the presence or absence of YM bacteria. YM bacteria increased corrosion rates by 5-6 fold in UNS G10200 carbon steel, and nearly 100-fold in UNS N04400 Ni-Cu alloy. YM bacteria caused microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) through de-alloying or Ni-depletion of Ni-Cu alloy as evidenced by scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) and inductively coupled plasma
spectroscopy (ICP) analysis. MIC rates of more corrosion-resistant alloys such as UNS N06022 Ni-Cr- Mo-W alloy, UNS N06625 Ni-Cr-Mo alloy, and UNS S30430 stainless steel were measured below...
Key words: MIC, container materials, YM bacteria, de-alloying, Ni-depletion, Cr-depletion, polarization resistance, anodic polarization.