Due to the absence of a natural current zero crossing in DC system, DC breakers have to dissipate the large amount of residual energy which is stored in the inductance in the system. ZnO arresters are used for preventing switching over-voltage and destruction when the fault current is interrupted. A dynamic simulated model of HVDC vacuum circuit breaker with forced current zero based on PSCAD is set up. Action process of ZnO arrester with microsecond breaking process is analyzed first. The option and installment of ZnO arrester have been considerd critically and the criterion of the ZnO arrester option is proposed. Simulations demonstrate the validness of the theoretical analysis and verify the effectiveness of the option and installment of ZnO arrester . At last,the relevent issues about ZnO arrester remaining to be studied in the HVDC vacuum circuit breakers are proposed.