X-ray study of radiation damage in UO irradiated with high-energy heavy ions

Ishikawa, Norito   ; Sonoda, Takeshi*; Okamoto, Yoshihiro  ; Sawabe, Takashi*; Takegahara, Keisuke; Kosugi, Shinya*; Iwase, Akihiro*

In order to characterize the radiation damage due to ion-track formation in UO, polycrystalline samples have been irradiated with 210-MeV Xe ions, and measured with XRD (X-ray diffraction) technique using Cu X-ray. We have also tried EXAFS (extended X-ray absorption fine structure) measurement using X-ray near U L-edge. The results show that XRD technique detects damage at relatively low fluence of 10 ions/m and higher, while the irradiation-induced change of EXAFS spectra is not observed even at highest fluence of 10 ions/m. The damage detection may be critically influenced by the depth profile of X-ray penetration.