Chlorate cell with base metal anode?

Not having MMO or Pt anode as well as from curiosity I'm doing now my most desperate experiments ever
You might already know that electrodes made of nickel are successfully used for generation of H2/O2 in water electrolysis, so when the medium is alkaline Ni anodes stand up well and are really inert. So an idea came into my mind, that if I try to electrolyze NaCL solution where enough NaOH is added then probably I can avoid degradation of Ni anode while at the same time the cell might generate chlorate. I wanted to try to experiment on this desperate idea so I assembled a 200ml cell for that. To prepare the electrolyte I dissolved as much as possible NaCl in water and then added a lot of NaOH flakes, I roughly estimate that concentration of NaOH is not below 15-20% now, and there's a deposition of salt now - I guess NaCL is not very soluble in the presence of NaOH. For cathode I use a copper (strip of PCB) and not having pure Ni for anode I decided to go with a thick nichrome wire. All assembled and connected to variable voltage power supply I started with 3V potential for first. A gas generation started at both electrodes (approx 1A current) and waiting for few hours I really confirmed that anode stands well with no at all degradation. I must note that at 3-3.5V the current was much lower compared to the same cell when only NaOH solution is electrolyzed. Anyway, to speed up the process I started to increase the voltage stepwies and found that nichrome anode starts to degrade (pitting corrosion) above 4 volts, while the current is not sufficiently high, what a pity.
Next and the most interesting thing happened when I decided to replace NiCrome anode with a regular thick iron nail! Guess what ? At a voltage of 5.2V and current 8A it doesn't even think to corrode for the last 5 hours of run! The solution only changed to a light pink color, which I think is some manganese from the nail entered into solution and oxidized to permanganate. No rust, at all!
Of course you will now throw stone towards me saying that no cloride is going to be oxidized at all and all I do is generationg oxygen at the anode and may be you are right, especially that the cell doesn't smell of chlorine. For this to try I took some ml from that solution to test for chlorine species after some hours of run, part of that I dropped into conc. HCL solution - well it fizzled a bit, HCL turned greenish color, but no distinct strong odour of chlorine is observed. I also dropped it into ammonia solution and then acidified it - I can really smell the unbearable chloramine (so I guess some hypochlorite is present).
This was just the first crude test with even no concentrations measured, because I thought it'll be a total failure, which it seems isn't!
Now, yout thoughts please, can chlorate be generated on Fe (or other base metal) anode in strongly alkaline solutions (+ NaCL) even with little current efficiency ? Am I ONLY wasting current to generate oxygen and no chloride turns into higher oxidation states? What if take less NaOH (but which still defends the anode some way) and try to fine tune the process?

[Edited on 14-1-2014 by papaya]

I don't think you're 'only waisting current', but it wont be effective, either. It might work I'm sure you're making some -CLO3.
When I've done it the cell hardly smelled like chlorine at all, which is good.