Mikhail Slobodyan, a researcher at the Laboratory of Advanced Technologies of the Tomsk Scientific Center of SB RAS, has published a series of reviews devoted to welding of zirconium and its alloys, which are widely used in the nuclear and chemical industries. The first part https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2021.103630 , presented in the ‘Progress in Nuclear Energy’ journal (Web of Science, Q2, IF 1.508), discusses arc methods. The second one https://doi.org/10.1016/j.net.2020.10.005 , accepted for publication by ‘Nuclear Engineering and Technology’ (Web of Science, Q1, IF 1.846), summarizes patterns of the formation of welds by resistance, electron- and laser-beam welding.

The papers provide an overview of research results in the field of welding of zirconium and its alloys that published over seven decades of their industrial use. The author has shown patterns of the weld formation depending on the applied process parameters. In the first part, the main attention has been paid to the gas tungsten arc, plasma-arc, and gas metal arc welding methods. Also, the features of the edge preparation, welding zone shielding with inert gases, energy parameters, as well as their effect on the microstructure and properties of the welded joints have been considered. In addition, it summarizes typical operating conditions for assemblies and structures in the chemical and nuclear industries, requirements for the weld quality, methods of their control and repairing, as well as post-weld heat treatment.

The second part generalizes the published data on the welding procedures implemented for manufacturing of nuclear fuel assemblies. Requirements for their quality, the edge preparation, advanced welding facilities, process parameters, post-weld heat treatment and processing, as well as methods of quality control and repair of the joints have been reported. Conclusions have been drawn about a significant gap between the capabilities of the up-to-date welding power sources, which enable to control the microstructure and the functional properties of the welds, and the procedures used in the nuclear industry.