Several metals used in the nuclear field are found to be lacking in one or more respects when these metals are employed in their pure or unalloyed state. For a variety of reasons, minor alloying additions are often added to these pure metals. However, the basic role played by these alloying elements is not well understood. By utilizing the technique of Auger electron spectroscopy on zircaloy-2 and zircaloy-4, it has been possible to make correlations between observed surface phenomena (of both impurity and alloy species) and previously established mechanical properties, such as a strain rate sensitivity around 300 °C in the zircaloys, and also chemical properties such as the build-up of an oxide layer above 300 °C in these same zirconium alloys.