Above a given temperature called TA, the chromium rich oxide which has been developed on the surface of Haynes 230® and model NiCrWC alloys at a lower temperature becomes unstable in impure helium: carbon monoxide is released. Actually, oxide is reduced by carbon from the alloy. A thermodynamic model is developed to rationalize the variation of TA as a function of the partial pressure of CO in the gas phase. It was found that, at the early stages of the scale reduction, the relevant reaction occurs at the oxide/metal interface between chromia and carbon from the alloy. The interfacial activity of carbon in the alloy can be calculated based on measurements of the interfacial weight percentage of chromium and using ThermoCalc ® software. Excellent agreement is observed between experimental values of TA and theoretical predictions.