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A Calorimetric Investigation Of Zirconium, Titanium, And Zirconium Alloys From 60 To 960°C, James L. Scott

Masters Theses

Structural materials for nuclear reactors must meet three stringent conditions: they must have adequate mechanical properties at the operating temperature, they must be corrosion resistant to the heat transfer medium (air, water, or alkali metals), and they must not absorb neutrons excessively. This last requirement is a particularly stringent one, for it is met by only four accessible metals: aluminum, magnesium, beryllium, and zirconium, as Table I shows.

For reactors which operate at low temperatures, aluminum serves as an excellent constructional material, but it cannot be used for more efficient high-temperature reactors, because of its low elevated temperature strength associated …