A better understanding of the behavior of the corrosion products at operating conditions of PWR is required. This study aims to collect new thermodynamic data on the species composing the corrosion products. The experimental work, described in this paper, focuses on the study of two solid phases: nickel oxide NiO and nickel ferrite NiFe2O4. Dissolution rate of nickel oxide has been measured to 130 °C in acidic conditions (pH 3 to 5). A kinetic model has been used to describe the measured dissolution rates. This calculation allowed us to determine the real activation energy of the dissolution reaction of nickel oxide which is equal to 56,5 ± 3,7 kJ.mol-1. The dissolution rates of nickel oxide are slow and as a consequence, only a limited amount of nickel oxide can be dissolved during reactor shutdown. Solubility of a stoichiometric nickel ferrite, experimentally synthesized, has been measured from 100 to 200 °C in acidic conditions with a hydrogen electrode concentration cell. The results show a non-congruent dissolution of nickel ferrite with an iron excess. The speciation of soluble iron and nickel was studied based on the available thermodynamic data at high temperature and the measured concentrations were compared with the equilibrium constants with the MULTEQ code. The solubility of nickel ferrite in a reducing acidic solution is reasonably well described by the available thermodynamic data. A new high temperature solubility measurement cell was designed and built. This paper describes in detail the design of the cell and the first tests that have been conducted.
