On August 17, the first batch of nuclear-grade sponge zirconium products developed by ZHYZ Atomic Energy Industry Co., Ltd. officially launched. This is the first time that China has supplied nuclear-grade zirconium sponge to overseas in bulk, marking a huge breakthrough in China's nuclear-grade zirconium material export, and indicating that China's nuclear-grade zirconium sponge production has reached international standards.
Zirconium alloy material is the key structural material of nuclear reactor core. As the “skeleton” and “skin” that constitute the fuel assembly, zirconium alloy is called the “first safety barrier” of nuclear reactors. It is very important for the safe and stable operation of nuclear power plants. One of the important indicators of the level of fuel assembly research and development. Nuclear-grade sponge zirconium is an important raw material for manufacturing nuclear-grade zirconium alloy materials. For a long time, domestic zirconium alloy materials for nuclear power plant fuel assemblies have basically relied on imports.
After years of continuous production improvement and market development, the quality and production capacity of ZHYZ nuclear-grade zirconium materials have been continuously improved. ZHYZ can simultaneously realize the whole industry chain enterprise from raw material production, zirconium and hafnium separation to nuclear grade sponge zirconium and hafnium preparation. In August 2019, the nuclear-grade zirconium sponge products produced by ZHYZ successfully passed the qualification appraisal, marking that the nuclear-grade zirconium sponge products independently developed and produced by China National Nuclear Corporation have reached the domestic advanced level.