Dynamical simulations of radiation damage induced by 10 keV energetic recoils in UO2

We have performed classical molecular dynamics simulations to simulate the primary damage state induced by 10 keV energetic recoils in UO2. The numbers versus time and the distance distributions for the displaced uranium and oxygen atoms were investigated with the energetic recoils accelerated along four different directions. The simulations suggest that the direction of the primary knock-on atom (PKA) has no effect on the final primary damage state. In addition, it was found that atomic displacement events consisted of replacement collision sequences in addition to the production of Frenkel pairs. The spatial distribution of defects introduced by 10 keV collision cascades was also presented and the results were similar to that of energetic recoils with lower energy.