Study of the Kinetics of Radiation Damage in CeO(2) Ceramics upon Irradiation with Heavy Ions

In this work, the effect of irradiation with heavy Kr(15+) and Xe(22+) ions on the change in the structural and strength properties of CeO(2) microstructural ceramics, which is one of the candidates for inert matrix materials for dispersed nuclear fuel, is considered. Irradiation with heavy Kr(15+) and Xe(22+) ions was chosen to determine the possibility of simulation of radiation damage comparable to the action of fission fragments, as well as neutron radiation, considering damage accumulation at a given depth of the near-surface layer. During the research, it was found that the main changes in the structural properties with an increase in the irradiation fluence are associated with the crystal lattice deformation distortions and the consequent radiation damage accumulation in the surface layer, and its swelling. Evaluation of the effect of gaseous swelling caused by the radiation damage accumulation showed that a variation in the ion type during irradiation results in a growth in the value of swelling and destruction of the near-surface layer with the accumulation of deformation distortions. Results of the strength variation demonstrated that the most intense decrease in the near-surface layer hardness is observed when the fluence reaches more than 10(13)–10(14) ion/cm(2), which is typical for the effect of overlapping radiation damage in the material.