Sensitivity of performance and degradation measurements on AMTEC electrodes in sodium exposure test cells to experiment conditions

In this paper we discuss performance and degradation measurements made on AMTEC electrodes in sodium exposure test cells. We measured electrode temperatures, sodium pool temperatures, and apparent charge transfer resistance values, from which we derived normalized exchange current density (B) values for WRh, MoRe, Re, and Ir electrodes. Electrode temperatures ranged from 600/spl deg/C to 900/spl deg/C, while sodium pool temperatures ranged from 190/spl deg/C to 340/spl deg/C. In general, the B values for WRh, MoRe, and Re samples were in the same range, while the B values for Ir were lower. B values generally increased linearly with increasing sodium pool temperature.