Structural investigation of self-irradiation damaged AmO2

Studying self-irradiated materials is an ideal means to investigate the effect of the damages on material structure and to better understand the behaviour of irradiated nuclear fuels. In this context, X-ray diffraction, X-ray absorption spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy have been used to investigate self-irradiation damaged AmO2. Combining these techniques allows studying the microstructure and the variation of the fluorite structure at both short-range and long-range order. Thus, the increase of both interatomic distances and lattice parameter was shown, as well as the presence of nanometer sized He bubbles. As confirmed by the observed high-level of crytallinity, the fluorite structure exhibits a high radiation tolerance, which is confirmed by the low increase of the lattice parameter. This could be explained by a self-annealing mechanism of the created defects at room temperature.

PRIEUR Damien;  VIGIER Jean-Francois;  WISS Thierry;  JANSSEN Arne;  ROTHE J.;  CAMBRIANI Andrea;  SOMERS Joseph; 

2014-03-07

ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE

JRC84865

0022-4596,   

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022459613006038,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC84865,   

10.1016/j.jssc.2013.12.016,