Nanosecond photoelectric effect is observed in a ZrO2 single crystal at ambient temperature for the first time.The rise time is 20ns and the full width at half maximum is about 30ns for the photovoltaic pulse when the wafer surface of the ZrO2 single crystal is irradiated by 248nm KrF laser pulses. The experimental results show that ZrO2 single crystals may be a potential candidate in UV photodetectors.