Experimental evidence of Xe incorporation in Schottky defects in UO2

Abstract

We report here the direct experimental observation of the preferential xenon incorporation site in uranium dioxide and analyse how its incorporation evolves with the annealing temperature. We show that High Energy Resolution Fluorescence Detection X-ray Absorption Near Edge Structure in combination with first-principles calculations enable a precise determination of the Xe incorporation site. Our finding provides important insight for the understanding and modeling of noble gases behavior in nuclear oxide fuel.