Zirconium alloy heat treatment process and product

The ability of zirconium-base alloys to resist pustular corrosion under boiling-water reactor conditions may be enhanced by a process including a high temperature solution treatment and rapid quency, followed by a heat-aging step which results in precipitation of a second phase in the form of particles ranging from about 100 to 400 Angstroms in size. These particles of intermatallic material Zr(Cr,Fe)2 in Zircaloy-4 and both Zr(Cr,Fe)2 and Zr2(Ni,Fe) in Zircaloy-2 are segregated in two-dimensional arrays along grain- and sub-grain boundaries instead of being in the usual condition of generally uniform distribution and isolated and separated from each other. (LL)