For the world's best cladding tubes, ten years of progress by Zircaloy Special Committee of JAPCO

The zircaloy special committee was organized in 1971 for the purpose of planning the trial use of two nuclear fuel assemblies for which Japan-made cladding tubes were to be used, for a BWR. Now, seven years later, these two fuel assemblies have completed their service life, and have been submitted to post-irradiation examination after cooling for a year. Zircaloy tubes have been produced by Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd., and Kobe Steel, Ltd., and more than ten years have elapsed since wholly Japan-made zircaloy cladding tubes were used for reloading fuel elements for the Japan Power Demonstration Reactor. In this report, the history, progress and significance of the works performed by the committee are summarized. The LWR fuel elements made in Japan have attained the highest performance in the world as the leak has been scarce, and the works of the committee is one of the pioneering activities in the development of LWR fuel technology. The situation for starting the committee, the activity of the committee during ten years, the significance and outcome of the committee activity are reported. (Kako, I.)