Fuel cladding tubes and fuel elements

Purpose: To enable non-destructive measurement for the thickness of zirconium barriers. Constitution: Regions capable of non-destructive inspection are provided at the boundary between a fuel cladding tube made of zirconium alloy and the zirconium barrier lined to the inner circumference surface of the tube. As the regions being capable of distinguishing by ultrasonic wave reflection, solid materials, for example, non-metal materials different from that for the tube and the barrier are placed or gaps are provided at the boundary between the zirconium alloy cladding tube and the zirconium barrier. Since ultrasonic waves are reflected at each of the boundaries by the presence of these regions, thickness of the zirconium barrier can be measured in a non-destructive manner from either the inner or the outer surface of the tube. (Yoshino, Y.)