An attempt to reproduce high burn-up structure by ion irradiation of SIMFUEL

Experiments in IC-100 and U-400 cyclotrons were conducted with SIMFUEL pellets (11.47 wt.% of fission products simulators) to reproduce some aspects of the long-term irradiation conditions in epithermal reactors. Pellets were irradiated with Xe16+, Xe24+ and He+ at energies ranging from 20 keV (He+) to 320 keV (Xe16+) and 1–90 MeV (Xe24+). Some samples were subsequently annealed to obtain larger grain sizes and to study defects recovery. The major microstructural changes consisted in grain sub-division observed on SEM and AFM images and change in composition registered by EPMA (pellets irradiated with 1–90 MeV Xe24+ ions at fluence of 5 × 1015 cm−2). Lattice distortion and increase in dislocation density is also noted according to X-ray data. At low energies and high fluences formation of bubbles (20 keV He+ at 5.5 × 1017 cm−2) was observed. Grain sub-division exhibits full coverage of the grain body and preservation of former grain boundaries. The size of sub-grains depends on local dislocation density and changes from 200 nm to 400 nm along the irradiated surface. Beneath it the size ranges from 150 to 600 nm. Sub-grains are not observed in samples irradiated by low-energy ions even at high dislocation densities.