Clarification of high density electronic excitation effects on the microstructural evolution in UO2

In order to understand the properties of ion tracks and the microstructural evolution under accumulation of ion tracks in UO2, 100 MeV Zr10+ and 210 MeV Xe14+ ions irradiation examinations have been done at a tandem accelerator facility of JAEA-Tokai, and it has been observed the microstructure by means of a transmission electron microscope (TEM) and a scanning electron microscope (SEM) in CRIEPI.Comparison of the diameter of ion tracks between UO2 and CeO2 under irradiation with 100 MeV Zr10+ and 210 MeV Xe14+ ions at room temperature clarify that the sensitivity on high density electronic excitation of UO2 is much less than that of CeO2. By the cross-sectional observation of UO2 under irradiation with 210 MeV Xe14+ ions at 300 °C, elliptical changes of fabricated pores that exist till ∼6 μm depth and the formation of dislocations have been observed in the ion fluence over 5 × 1014 ions/cm2. The drastic changes of surface morphology and inner structure in UO2 indicate that the overlapping of ion tracks will cause the point defects, enhance the diffusion of point defects and dislocations, and form the sub-grains at relatively low temperature.