Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. A method for fabricating a reactor component from a zirconium alloy comprising:securing a sufficient quantity of a zirconium alloy including 0.6-1.2 wt % Nb; 0.2-0.5 wt % Fe; 0.5-1.2 wt % Sn; and no more than 70 ppm Ni; the balance of the zirconium alloy being Zr and impurities;forging a slab of the zirconium alloy;thermally conditioning the slab;forming the reactor component from the slab using a final cold work process; andcompleting the reactor component, without additional annealing of the slab subsequent to the final cold work process, to obtain a final reactor product having residual cold work stress. 2. The method for fabricating a zirconium alloy strip for use as reactor component from a zirconium alloy according to claim 1, comprising:obtaining an ingot having an alloy composition including 0.6-1.2 wt % Nb, 0.2-0.5 wt % Fe, 0.5-1.2 wt % Sn and no more than 70 ppm Ni, the balance of the zirconium alloy being Zr and impurities;the ingot having an initial diameter Di and a mass Mi sufficient for forming the intended component;bringing the ingot to a hot working temperature THW;forging an initial slab from the heated ingot while maintaining the alloy at or near the hot working temperature with the thickness of the initial slab Ds being between 30% and 10% of the initial diameter of the ingot; bringing the initial slab to a first hot rolling temperature THR1;hot rolling the initial slab to form an intermediate slab with the thickness of the intermediate slab Dint being between 30% and 10% of the thickness of the initial slab;conditioning the intermediate slab at a first conditioning temperature Tcl, to adjust the microstructure and/or reduce stress;bringing the intermediate slab to a second hot rolling temperature THR2;hot rolling the intermediate slab to form a strip preform with the thickness of the strip preform Dsp being between 95% and 50% of the thickness of the intermediate slab;conditioning the strip preform to adjust the microstructure and/or reduce stress;β-quenching the strip preform;holding the quenched strip preform at a conditioning temperature Tc for a conditioning period; hot rolling the conditioned strip preform;annealing the rolled strip preform;cold rolling the annealed strip preform to achieve a thickness reduction of 15% to 50%;annealing the cold rolled strip preform in a non-oxidizing atmosphere;cold rolling the annealed cold rolled strip preform to a final thickness; andcutting the strip preform to the final strip dimensions. 3. The method for fabricating a reactor component from a zirconium alloy according to claim 1, wherein:the residual cold work stress is at least 2%. 4. The method for fabricating a reactor component from a zirconium alloy according to claim 3, wherein:the residual cold work stress does not exceed 10%. 5. The method for fabricating a reactor component from a zirconium alloy according to claim 1, wherein: the residual cold work stress is at least 10%. 6. The method for fabricating a reactor component from a zirconium alloy according to claim 1, wherein:the residual cold work stress is at least 25%.