Abstract: Q235 carbon steel is a candidate material of the high level waste (HLW) disposal container. The irradiation corrosion test of Q235 carbon steel was carried out with the high-strength ⁶⁰Co radioactive device (1.11×10¹⁶ Bq) in the simulated groundwater in Gansu Beishan aera. Water chemical parameter analysis, weighing, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) were used to analyze the effects of irradiation dose (time) on the evolution of irradiation corrosion. The results show that the oxidizability of the simulated groundwater is enhanced, the pH value changes from 7.81 to 4.75, which means that the solution changes from weakly alkaline to strongly acidic under the long-term high-strength γ irradiation. Besides, the electrical conductivity decreases obviously, but there is no significant change for the pH value and electrical conductivity of the non-irradiated solution, and the irradiation corrosion rate calculated by mass change rate is about 5.5 times that of non-irradiation. SEM-EDS and FT-IR analysis shows that bubbles or needles appeare in the corrosion layer. The corrosion layer surface changes from dense to sparse as the radiation dose increases. The chemical composition of the corrosion layer is mainly Fe and O, and the corrosion layer contains different phases of iron oxyhydroxide (α-FeOOH and γ-FeOOH) and iron oxide (α-Fe₂O₃).