Proton irradiation-induced blistering in UO2

Janne Pakarinen, Lingfeng He, Jian Gan, Andrew T. Nelson, Anter El-Azab, Marat Khafizov, Todd R. Allen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Proton (H+) irradiation effects in polycrystalline UO2 have been studied. The irradiation was carried out using three ion energies and two different ion fluxes at 600 °C. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) investigations showed that significant surface flaking took place. Focused ion beam (FIB) milling in SEM was successfully applied for extracting lamellas from uneven blistered surfaces for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) investigations allowing detailed investigations for the degradation mechanisms. High-resolution TEM for the flaked UO2 surfaces revealed that the implanted H+ formed sharp two-dimensional cavities at the peak ion-stopping region instead of diffusing to the matrix. The resulting lateral stress likely caused UO2 surface deterioration in good agreement with previous blistering and flaking studies on crystalline materials. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1032-1036
Number of pages5
JournalMRS Advances
Volume6
Issue number47-48
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2021

Funding

JP, LH, JG, AE, and TA acknowledge the support by the Center for Materials Science of Nuclear Fuel and MK acknowledges the support by the Center for Thermal Energy Transport under Irradiation. Both are Energy Frontier Research Centers funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences. The FIB and TEM work was supported by the U. S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy under DOE Idaho Operations Office Contract DE-AC07-051D14517, as part of a Nuclear Science User Facilities experiment.

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