The potential-current density relationships for 304 stainless steel dissolution in a nitrate system were studied as a function of solution composition and temperature in order to optimize the conditions for electrolytic dissolution of ihis material. In the nitrate system, the anodic dissolution of steel takes place in the transpassive region. Under some conditions, deviations from Tafel behavior are observed which depend greatly on the nitrate and hydrogen ion concentration, and on temperature. A discussion of passivity, transpassivity, secondary passivation, the limiting current density, and the effect of alloy composition on the dissolution behavior is given. It was found that at temperatures above 60 deg C efficient dissolver operation should be possible over a wide range of solution compositions and at current densities up to 2 amp/cm/sup 2/. (auth).