About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
Materials in Nuclear Energy Systems (MiNES) 2025
|
| Symposium
|
Materials in Nuclear Energy Systems (MiNES) 2025
|
| Presentation Title |
Interstitial Loop Growth, Unfaulting, Migration, and Coalescence in Fluorite Oxides |
| Author(s) |
Md Minaruzzaman, Anshul Kamboj, Kaustubh Bawane, Lin-Chieh Yu, Mutaz Alshannaq, Omer Zengince, Lin Shao, Lingfeng He, Matt Mann, David Hurley, Miaomiao Jin, Yongfeng Zhang , Boopathy Kombaiah, Marat Khafizov |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Marat Khafizov |
| Abstract Scope |
Evolution of dislocation loops and lines plays an important role in nuclear fuel behavior as their evolution governs fuel restructuring and fission gas release. We present an integrated study that uses cluster dynamics (CD) modeling informed by dislocation theory for analyzing dislocation loop size distribution evolution revealed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Hydrothermally grown single crystals of UO2, ThO2, and CeO2 were irradiated with 2 MeV protons. TEM characterization was performed after the irradiation under bright-field and rel-rod imaging conditions which allowed us to isolate faulted and perfect loop populations. In-situ imaging under annealing condition revealed migration of perfect loops and loop coalescence, which were attributed to a conservative climb mechanism where loop migration is governed by pipe-diffusion of point defects. Characterization of as-irradiated samples using CD suggests that at low irradiation dose faulted dislocation loops are homogeneously nucleated and grow via absorption of point defects, which subsequently unfault upon reaching a temperature dependent critical size. Analysis of temperature dependence of the unfaulting rate and loop size distribution has a potential to uncover the energy landscape for the loop unfaulting process. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Undecided |