1 Premature railroad-wheel failure is very commonly the result of contact-fatigue defects due to high contact loads. Fatigue cracks are most likely to begin at nonmetallic inclusions, as shown in [1, 2]. Undeformable aluminum-oxide inclusions are a common source of contact-fatigue defects [3]. The quality of wheel steel is characterized by the quantity and size distribution of undeformable nonmetallic inclusions. The quantity of large undeformable inclusions determines the likelihood of contact‐fatigue defects in the metal, as shown for the example of rail steel in [4, 5]. The chemical and phase composition of the inclusions and also their size and distribution in the matrix largely depend on the reduction method (the reducing agents employed, their composition and quantity, and the sequence and method of introduction of the reducing agents in the melt) and the ladle treatment of the steel. The required wheel characteristics are obtained with a low content of nonmetallic inclusions and with high reproducibility of the composition, morphology, and size of these inclusions. In developing the optimal reduction technology, physicochemical analysis of the reduction of such steel must be combined with investigation of metal samples taken during smelting, ladle treatment, and casting. The present work is devoted to analysis and optimization of the reduction of wheel steel, with investigation of means of reducing the rejection rate in ultrasonic monitoring. The production system for wheel steel at OAO Vyksunskii Metallurgicheskii Zavod (VMZ) includes the following stages: smelting hot metal in 250-t openhearth furnaces; its discharge to two 130-t ladles; supply of carbon-bearing additives and slag-forming materials (lime, fluorspar, and bauxite); successive ladle treatment (heating, reduction, and alloying in a ladle‐ furnace unit) and vacuum treatment in a VD unit (residual pressure above melt p res < 7 Pa, maintained for at least 20 min), with partial transfer of slag from the first to the second ladle before vacuum treatment; where necessary, adjustment of the chemical composition of 1 Participants in this research included A. M. Arsenkin, A. Yu. Dalmatov, and G. S. Ashina. the metal and reduction; homogenizing injection of argon; and bottom casting in molds. We undertake thermodynamic analysis of the possible reduction methods for wheel-steel melts containing 0.63% C, 0.75% Mn, 0.38% Si, 0.015% S, 0.020% P, and 0.2% Cr. With the given carbon content and p CO = 0.1 MPa, the equilibrium oxygen concentration in the melt at 1873 K is 0.004‐0.005%, which prevents the production of steel with a sufficiently low content of nonmetallic inclusions.