Method of making a flat product made of zirconium alloy, product obtained by the method, and fuel assembly element for nuclear power plant reactors made of the flat product

摘要

The production of a flat product of zirconium alloy comprises: (a) producing and casting an ingot of zirconium alloy; (b) forming the ingot to produce a flat product; (c) subjecting to a hardening operation (beta ) to produce an acicular core structure; (d) subjecting the hardened product to a rolling sequence without intermediate reheating at between ambient and 200[deg]C, with a reduction rate of 2-20%; and (e) subjecting the rolled product to an annealing treatment in the alpha or alpha +beta domain effected between 500 and 800[deg]C for 2 minutes to 10 hours. An independent claim is also included for a flat product of zirconium alloy produced by above process.