Recently, China's first self-developed
zirconium alloy material to meet the requirements of third-generation nuclear power -- CF3 nuclear fuel assembly N36 zirconium alloy material batch first batch of products successfully rolled off the production line and passed the acceptance, its comprehensive performance index is in the international advanced ranks, and shipped for CF3 nuclear fuel component manufacturing. This marks the break of China's long-standing monopoly on foreign "neck" link in the large-scale application of a solid step on the road.
The fuel assembly is the core of a nuclear reactor. Zirconium alloy is the key structural material of nuclear reactor core. As the "skeleton" and "skin" of fuel assembly, zirconium alloy is known as the "first safety barrier" of nuclear reactor. It plays an important role in the safe and stable operation of nuclear power plant and is one of the important indexes to evaluate the research and development level of fuel assembly. For a long time, zirconium alloy materials used in fuel assemblies of nuclear power plants in China have been basically imported. Zirconium alloy materials have become the main bottleneck restricting the development of nuclear fuel industry in China and the main shortcoming of nuclear fuel industry.
In order to eliminate the bottleneck and make up the shortcoming, in 2010, the key science and technology project of China national nuclear corporation (CNNC) started the research on the "pressurized water reactor component design technology", and the CF3 specifically took the new cladding material N36 zirconium alloy as the breakthrough point, and the development of N36 zirconium alloy tubes and rods as the main research content. Since then, China's nuclear power eight years, the six stages of technical research, successfully mastered the complete with independent intellectual property rights N36 zirconium alloy engineering preparation technology, for the first time since 2012 into the heap, through multiple batches characteristic components, the forerunner of pile with running test and check with the pool, proof performance is excellent, fully meet the design requirements, with the mass application conditions.
