Zirconium and hafnium, in the eyes of ordinary people are two special metal materials, do not have special significance. In fact, zirconium is often used as fuel cladding material and core structure material for nuclear reactors due to its unique nuclear properties, such as small muon absorption cross section, excellent corrosion resistance at high temperature, high pressure and water, and good radiation resistance in nuclear reactors.
And hafnium has plasticity, easy to process, high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, hafnium thermal neutron capture cross section is large, is an ideal neutron absorber, can be used as a control rod and protection device for atomic reactors.
Zirconium, hafnium and high temperature resistance, radiation corrosion resistance and unique nuclear performance, so that they can not only in the nuclear industry, nuclear power and other industries can be used in reactor cladding and structural materials, reactor control materials, but also in mechanical manufacturing, chemical petroleum, metallurgy, pharmaceutical, electronics and other fields are widely used. Nuclear applications of nuclear grade zirconium, hafnium materials are rare metal materials.
At present, due to the limitation of separation technology, the development and application of zirconium tube and zirconium alloy for nuclear power in China are still far behind that in other countries.
