About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
MS&T26: Materials Science & Technology
|
| Symposium
|
Ceramics and Glasses for Nuclear Energy Applications
|
| Presentation Title |
Impact of Radiation Damage in Uranium Dioxide: Integrating Rate Theory Defect Evolution with Irradiated Annealed Sample |
| Author(s) |
Mutaz Alshannaq, Marat Khafizov, Md Minaruzzaman, Saqeeb Adnan |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Mutaz Alshannaq |
| Abstract Scope |
This study presents a mechanistic framework to evaluate the effect of radiation damage on the thermal conductivity of UO2 fuel. A Rate Theory (RT) model is employed to simulate defect evolution under in-pile, out-of-pile, and annealing conditions, enabling identification of the dominant mechanisms responsible for conductivity degradation and recovery. The model reproduces three annealing recovery stages: an initial recovery during storage and two additional stages associated with in-pile irradiation, together with a gradual continuous recovery linked to fission gas release and defect–microstructure interactions. Defect-induced phonon scattering is quantified using the Klemens–Callaway Model (KCM) to predict the thermal conductivity evolution. The calculated conductivity trends show excellent agreement with experimental measurements for pristine UO2 reported by J.T. White and irradiated fuel data from Ronchi and subsequent analyses by Staicu. The proposed framework provides a dynamic and predictive capability for assessing irradiation-history-dependent thermal performance in nuclear fuel. |