Although the subject of irradiation corrosion has been studied for more than 39 years, there is not yet a general theory universally accepted. In this paper. in virtue of the realization of the monovalue ion energy by accelerator. a parameter G. the irradiation corrosion damage efficiency, was defined theoretically. A G-D function, where D is the ion irradiation dose. was established by using zirconium alloy samples bombarded with Zr+ and Ar+ ions respectively and then tested electrochemically in LiOH water solution at high pressure and high temperature, in H2SO4 or H3BO3 water solution at room temperature etc. With this curve, the whole process of irradiation corrosion was divided into 6 stages i.e. the primary oxidation, the enhancement of irradiation corrosion, saturation, decrease and reversing into the protection zone, saturation of protection, and the final decay. This curve reflected change of most parameters in irradiation and electrochemical polarization, and presented a comprehensive explanation of mechanisms of irradiation corrosion process. This curve unified the contradictory experimental results in the history up to now and the different opinions between laboratory investigations and engineering data and experiences. The applications of this theory was expected 1) to evaluate the irradiation corrosion resistance of materials; 2) to direct the establishment of the data base of irradiation corrosion of different nuclear materials and establishment of the correlation between ion irradiation corrosion and the neutron irradiation corrosion in different reactors; 3) to help the subjects in other application areas involved irradiation and corrosion of materials e. g. space navigation etc. 4) to direct the experiments of simulation of neutron irradiation corrosion by ion bombardment:
Key words: damage function, theoretical model, zirconium alloy, zirconium ion, ion bombardment, irradiation corrosion, electrochemistry. simulation