METHOD FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF TUBES OF A ZIRCONIUM BASED ALLOY FOR NUCLEAR REACTORS AND THEIR USAGE

摘要

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing tubes of zirconium based alloys for usage in nuclear reactors. According to the invention one can achieve good resistance towards general corrosion, improved transversal creep strength and reduced irradiation induced growth by subjecting a beta -quenched tube a vacuum anneal in the alpha -phase range at a temperature and a time sufficient to obtain an annealing parameter value A in the range 3.4 x 10<-16> to 3.4 x 10<-13>.