Predetermined amounts of oxygen were added to Zircaloy‐2 by three methods which were expected to give widely different distributions of the oxygen in the metal. Subsequent oxidation of these specimens in steam showed that increases in the oxidation rate could be ascribed largely to the inhomogeneous distribution of the oxygen. The closer a homogeneous oxygen distribution was approached, the closer the oxidation rate approached that of low‐oxygen material. If the oxygen distribution in the surface was uniform, the presence of an oxygen gradient through the specimens did not result in an increase in the oxidation rate.