In an effort to examine the combined effect of HNO3, NaCl, and temperature on the general corrosion behavior of 304 stainless steel (SS), electrochemical studies were performed. It was found that the corrosion response of 304 SS was bifurcated: materirds were either continuously passive following immersion or spontaneously passivated following a period of active dissolution. Active dissolution was demonstrated to be autocatalytic, with the corrosion rate increasing exponentially with time and potential. The period of active corrosion terminated following spontaneous passivation, resulting in a corrosion rate decrease of up to five orders of magnitude. The length of the active corrosion period was found to be strongly dependent on the solution volume to surface area ratio. This finding, coupled with other results, suggested that spontaneous passivation arises solely from solution chemistry as opposed to changes in surface oxide composition. Increasing NaCl concentrations promoted pitting, active dissolution upon initial immersion, a smaller potentird range for passivity, longer active corrosion periods, larger active anodic charge densities preceding spontaneous passivation, and larger corrosion current and peak current densities.