Abstract
An attempt was made in this study to investigate the brazing characteristics of Zr-Be binary amorphous alloys for the development of a new brazing filler metal for joining Zircaloy-4 nuclear fuel cladding tubes. This study was also aimed at the feasibility study of rapidly solidified amorphous alloys to substitute the conventional physical vapor-deposited(PVD) metallic beryllium. The $Zr_{1-x}Be_{x}$($0.3\leq$x$\leq0.5$) binary amorphous alloys were produced in the ribbon form by the melt-spinning method. It was confirmed by x-ray diffraction that the ribbons were amorphous. The amorphous. the amorphous alloys were used to join bearing pads on Zircaloy-4 nuclear fuel cladding tubes. Using Zr-Be amorphous alloys as filler metals, it was found that the reduction in the tube wall thickness caused by erosion was prevented. Especially, in the case of using $Zr_{0.65}Be_{0.35}$ and $Zr_{0.7}Be_{0.3}$ amorphousalloys, the smooth and spherical primary $\alpha$-Zr particles appeared in the brazed layer, which was the most desirable microstructure from the corrosion-resistance standpoint.
