Austenitic stainless steels are largely used as structural materials for equipments handling nitric acid media in reprocessing plants. In almost all nitric media these materials remain in their passive state. However in presence of oxidizing ions their corrosion potential may be shifted towards their transpassive domain. In this domain they can suffer intergranular corrosion which limits their life time. Oxidizing species of the medium can be implicated in electrochemical processes. In nitric media the overall cathodic reaction is known to be the reduction of HNO3 whereas in nitric media with oxidizing ions the cathodic reaction can be reduction of oxidizing species. This cathodic reaction change leads to increase corrosion potential and corrosion rate. Several factors could influence this potential shift: oxidizing ions nature theirs concentrations reduction and oxidation kinetics. In addition the metallurgic impurities in the grain boundaries could explain their sensibility to corrosion. This study deals with mechanisms which could play a role in intergranular corrosion and a new model to predict long term corrosion rate.