The Importance of Zirconium in Nuclear Energy

My father was a metal a metallurgical engineer who went to Case Western Reserve and he dealt with nuclear energy projects. He worked with people that worked with nuclear energy nuclear reactors submarines all kinds of things that dealt with nuclear reactors zirconium was an element of metal that that allowed the electrons to pass through to you know create a nuclear fission and but it wouldn't rust so the zir Conium allowed the activity to go on without having the nuclear rods rusting or oxidizing. Then in between those things were carbon rods that would absorb electrons that could make is you know splitting atoms and therefore you could control the heat how hot you wanted it so it didn't explode like a