Abstract: Method of manufacturing zirconium alloy tubular products containing (wt. %): niobium—0.9-1.7; iron—0.04-0.10; oxygen—0.03-0.10; silicon—less than 0.02, carbon—less than 0.02, and zirconium—as the base of the alloy. This includes an ingot melting by multiple vacuum arc remelting, mechanical processing of the ingot, heating, hot working of the ingot, subsequent mechanical processing for the production of tubular billets, heat treatment of the tubular billets, application of a protective coating and heating to a hot pressing temperature, hot pressing, removal of the protective coating, multi-stage cold radial forging, vacuum thermal treatment, multiple cold rolling runs with a total deformation degree of 50-80-% per run and a tubular coefficient of Q=1.0-2.7 with intermediate vacuum thermal treatment after each cold rolling operation, and final vacuum thermal treatment of the resulting tubular products carried out at the final size with subsequent final finishing operations.

Abstract: The invention relates to the nuclear industry and can be used for producing fuel pellets from uranium-molybdenum metal powders enriched to 7% uranium 235 for nuclear reactor fuel elements. The pellets are sintered in an inert atmosphere of argon at a temperature ranging from 1100° C. to 1155° C., and the initial powder is a uranium-molybdenum powder having a fraction size of 160 µm and a molybdenum con¬tent of 9.0 to 10.5 wt%. The powder is pre-heated at a temperature of 500° C. for 10-20 hours (in an atmosphere of argon) and is subsequently cold pressed into pellets in a die under a force of up to 950 MPa. In an alternative emb¬odiment for producing uranium-molybdenum pellets with a binder (plasticizer), the step of sintering is preceded by heating the pellets in an atmosphere of argon at 300° C. to 450° C. for 2-4 hours to remove the binder.

Abstract: A method of ion-plasma application of corrosion-resistant film coatings on articles made from zirconium alloys includes placing articles in a planetary carousel mechanism, heating the articles, and ion-beam etching and surface activation of the articles using water-cooled unbalanced magnetrons. In addition, the surface of the articles is activated using an ion source which generates gas ions with an accelerating voltage of up to 5000 V and with feeding of a bias voltage to the articles. The coating is applied by using unbalanced and balanced magnetrons simultaneously with a residual induction of the magnetic field from 0.03 T to 0.1 T. The coating is applied to articles which are made from zirconium alloys and are placed vertically in a planetary carousel mechanism. The articles are heated in the coating application process to a temperature of 150-600° C., wherein the heaters are accommodated along the entire length of the articles.