Influence of exogenous xenon atoms on the evolution kinetics of extended defects in polycrystalline UO2 using in situ TEM

Abstract This work aims at improving our understanding of the UO 2 nuclear fuelbehavior under irradiation in general and of the microstructural evolutions during damage build-up at the nanometer scale in particular. Within this frame, we studied the influence of exogenous xenonatoms on the extended defect change in polycrystalline UO 2 thin foils through in situ TEM characterizations. The analysis of the TEM results and their comparison to our previous work (Onofri et al . JNM 482, 2016, 105) clearly show an impact of the implanted xenonatoms on the evolution kinetics of extended defects at 25 and 600 °C unlike lower temperatures (−180 °C in our case).