Method for making a flat zirconium alloy product, resulting flat product and fuel, assembly component for nuclear power plant reactor made from said flat product

A method of fabricating a flat product of zirconium alloy, comprising:

• one of preparing and casting a zirconium alloy ingot containing at least 95% by weight of zirconium, and including impurities and alloying elements;
• shaping the ingot in order to obtain a flat arrangement;
• subjecting the flat arrangement to a β quenching operation under conditions that are determined to obtain within the flat arrangement an acicular structure at an end of the β quenching;
• subjecting the flat arrangement, after the β quenching, to a rolling operation performed in a single rolling sequence without intermediate annealing, the rolling performed at a temperature lying in a range ambient to 200° C., with a reduction ratio lying in a range 2% to 20%;
• and
• subjecting the rolled flat arrangement to an annealing treatment in the a range or in out of an α+β range, performed in a temperature range 500° C. to 800° C. for 2 min to 10 h.

A zirconium alloy flat product, obtained by the method:

• one of preparing and casting a zirconium alloy ingot containing at least 95% by weight of zirconium, and including impurities and alloying elements;
• shaping the ingot in order to obtain a flat arrangement;
• subjecting the flat arrangement to af, quenching operation under conditions that are determined to obtain within the flat arrangement an acicular structure at an end of the β quenching;
• subjecting the flat arrangement, after the fl quenching, to a rolling operation performed in a single rolling sequence without intermediate annealing, the rolling performed at a temperature lying in a range ambient to 200° C., with a reduction ratio lying in a range 2% to 20%;
• and
• subjecting the rolled flat arrangement to an annealing treatment in the a range or in out of an α+β range, performed in a temperature range 500° C. to 800° C. for 2 min to 10 h.