NSUF 16-657: In Situ Observation of Lunar Crater Features in Xe Irradiated UO2 at High Dose

To simulate fission fragments damage and fission gas evolution in UO2, 300 keV Xe ion beam in Intermediate Voltage Electron Microscope (IVEM)-Tandem facility at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) will be used to irradiate polycrystalline UO2 lamellas. The damage depth is around 150 nm, which is close to the thickness of UO2 lamellas and good for in situ transmission electron microscope (TEM) observation. The rapid turnaround experiment is to reveal the microstructure evolution of UO2 up to 5×1016 ions/cm2 as a function of irradiation dose and temperature. The TEM lamellas of UO2 are prepared using a focused ion beam (FIB) system. Dislocation loops and dislocation segments or dislocation networks will be examined by both bright field and dark field image techniques. Cavities or bubble evolution in the grain and at grain boundaries (GBs) will be investigated by the under-focus and over-focus image techniques. Revealing the nucleation and evolution of lunar crater features at high dose will be the main purpose of this study. The comparison between the microstructure features of UO2 under various doses and temperatures will shed light on both the dose and temperature effects on dislocation, bubble, and lunar crater features formation and evolution. Further, the experimental microstructure characterization is to provide a fundamental foundation for the atomic-level modeling, which are conducted at Idaho National Laboratory and Purdue University. This rapid turnaround project includes in situ TEM observation using IVEM-Tandem facility at ANL, experimental data analysis and final report, which will take about 4 months in total. The proposed research will be performed in about 3 days at ANL.

Papildoma informacija

Laukas Reikšmė
Awarded Institution Idaho National Laboratory
Embargo End Date 2026-02-27
Facility Tech Lead Alina Montrose, Mukesh Bachhav, Wei-Ying Chen
NSUF Call FY 2016 RTE 2nd Call
PI Lingfeng He
Project Member Dr. Jian Gan, Research Scientist - Idaho National Laboratory (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9121-4164)
Project Member Dr. Lingfeng He, Associate Professor - North Carolina State University (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2763-1462)
Project Member Dr Ahmad Alsabbagh, Assistant Professor - Jordan University of Science and Technology (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9059-5025)
Project Type RTE
Publication Subsurface imaging of grain microstructure using picosecond ultrasonics Darryl Butt, Hunter Henderson, David Hurley, Brian Jaques, Marat Khafizov, Andrew Nelson, Janne Pakarinen, Michele Manuel, Lingfeng He Acta Materialia 112 2016-03-21 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359645416302609
RTE Number 657