According to the pace of commercial operation of nuclear power projects under construction and the pace of approval of new units under construction in the future, it is expected that the demand for
zirconium for nuclear power in China will explode from 2015 to 2017.Meanwhile, with the restart of nuclear power in China, it is expected that about 7 units will be put into operation every year in 2015 and 2016, and the demand for zirconium for new units will also recover rapidly. As a result, the demand for zirconium in China is expected to rise from less than 250 tons in 2014 to more than 600 tons in 2017.If calculated according to the 50% yield of zirconium, the demand for nuclear grade zirconium sponge in China will also increase from less than 500 tons in 2014 to 1,250 tons in 2017.
Similar to the zirconium used in nuclear reactors, military reactors also need to use a large amount of zirconium material, zirconium material is mainly used for nuclear fuel cladding and structural materials. At the same time, military reactors have higher requirements for the abundance of nuclear fuel, and usually use uranium-zirconium alloy as fuel core material, so the amount of zirconium in military reactors is higher.
