Abstract
Classical molecular dynamics has been performed to predict the behaviour of helium gas bubbles in uranium dioxide, UO2, when subjected to displacement cascades that mimic the effects of self-irradiation damage. The models presented here examine bubble sizes of 2 and 4 nm with several different gas densities and displacement cascades with energies of up to 50 keV. Of particular interest are the mechanisms by which helium atoms can be returned to solution in the lattice through interaction with displacement cascades. This occurs both via ballistic recoil from high-energy ion fragments traversing the bubble and also a damage assisted resolution whereby the high-pressure gas intermixes into the disordered cascade regions formed adjacent to the surface of the bubble.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 216-222 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Journal of Nuclear Materials |
| Volume | 381 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 15 Nov 2008 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
This work was carried out as part of the TSEC programme KNOO and as such we are grateful to the EPSRC for funding under Grant EP/C549465/1. Calculations were performed on the Imperial College High Performance Computing Service [43] . We would also like to thank Simon Burbidge for helpful discussion on the running of these calculations.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Nuclear and High Energy Physics
- Nuclear Energy and Engineering
- General Materials Science