Methods for cold spraying nickel particles on a substrate

Abstract

Described herein, are methods for providing a protective coating to a storage container for storing nuclear material, the method comprising depositing nickel particles on at least one surface of the substrate to produce the protective coating, wherein the nickel particles are deposited by cold spraying a composition comprising nickel particles and a carrier gas comprising nitrogen. In one aspect, the carrier gas consists essentially or consists only of nitrogen. The methods do not require pretreatment or modification of the nickel particles prior to cold spraying, which makes the methods described herein economically practical. The coatings produced by the methods described herein possess several advantageous properties including, but not limited to, high adhesion strength to the storage system and low porosity. The coatings produced by the methods described herein are effective against chemical attack such as, for example, CISCC.