Nuclear fuel is uranium, which was burned into small cylindrical uranium oxide ceramic pellets, piled up in the tube made of zirconium alloy cladding, make it their slender rods, and the fuel rods according to certain rules are assembled into a fuel assembly, is available for plant use. The reactor core at the plant contains hundreds of such nuclear fuel assemblies, weighing dozens of tons. Zirconium alloy is a nonferrous alloy with zirconium as the base and other elements added. With the constant improvement of the performance requirements of nuclear fuel components, developed has good mechanical properties, corrosion resistance and radiation resistance of high performance nuclear grade zirconium alloys has been the nuclear main research direction of the advanced countries. Nuclear grade zirconium alloy and high performance in the high temperature and high pressure steam and water is a must have good corrosion resistance and mechanical properties of moderate and low atom thermal neutron absorption cross section, has good compatibility to the nuclear fuel, so only can be used as a water-cooled nuclear reactor core structure materials (fuel cladding, pressure pipe, bracket and channel), which is the main purpose of the zirconium alloy.
Nuclear fuel component is the core component of the plant, it provides energy for nuclear power plant at the same time, is the first barrier to prevent nuclear, a direct impact on the plant safety, reliability and economy.
