| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2025 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Elucidating Microstructural Evolution Under Extreme Environments
|
| Presentation Title |
Evolution of Interstitial-Type Defects in Thorium Dioxide |
| Author(s) |
Yongfeng Zhang, Lin-Chieh Yu, Miaomiao Jin, Kaustubh Bawane, Boopathy Kombaiah , Anshul Kamboj, Chao Jiang , Marat Khafizov, David Hurley |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Yongfeng Zhang |
| Abstract Scope |
Fluoride structure oxides are popular nuclear fuels. During operation, they are subjected to intense irradiation, which produces lattice defects. The accumulation and evolution of defects can substantially degrade the thermomechanical properties of oxide fuels. This talk focuses on the evolution of interstitial-type defects in thorium dioxide, which is a representative fluoride-structure oxide, including migration of interstitials, their growth into clusters and sessile, faulted loops, and subsequent transformation into mobile, perfect loops. A new formation mechanism is proposed for faulted loops, solving the puzzle that the low mobility of Th interstitial predicted by atomistic calculations is insufficient to explain the common observations of interstitial loops in experiments. Instead of random-walk of individual interstitials, anisotropic motion of charged interstitial clusters, particularly those performing rapid one-dimensional migration, is found responsible for faulted loop formation. The critical role of Coulomb interaction between charged particles is highlighted, different from the cases in metals. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |