4. Castings

Molded parts are not generally used in nuclear applications, but mainly for corrosion resistance applications in the chemical industry. Again, the high reactivity of liquid Zr represents the main difficulty: all refractory oxides, such as SiO ₂ , Al ₂ O ₃ , MgO, BeO, are reduced, ZrO ₂ is dissolved, graphite is acceptable but with superficial dissolution in the metal. The simplest method of sand casting can therefore not be used. Early...