In view of the use of pure copper for encapsulating radioactive waste a programme of tests was undertaken to assess the propensity for stress corrosion cracking in synthetic ground water to which various additions were made. Of the additions studied, onlysodium nitrite induced stress corrosion, when present at concentrations in excess of 0·001 mol 1−1 and above potentials that varied with the nitrite concentration. Oxygen free high conductivity and phosphorus deoxidised coppers behaved essentially identically. The effects of deaeration of nitrite solutions and of raising the temperature to 8O°C upon cracking were studied.
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