The distributions of defects in various nuclear materials such as Mo, UO₂, and CeO₂ as a surrogate material for UO₂, formed by sub-MeV Xenon ion implantation were studied via TRIM and atomistic molecular dynamics codes and the results were compared with distributions from experiments where CeO₂ and Ce/LaO₂ crystals were implanted with different Xe concentrations up to doses of 1 x 10¹⁷ ions/cm² at room temperature and 600°C.

TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy) experiments were used to study the evolution of defect clusters during implantation of Xe+ ions at energies of 150, 500, 700 keV, depending on the experimental conditions. The simulation and irradiations were performed on thin film single crystal materials. The formation of dislocation loops, voids or bubbles, solid state precipitates and dislocation networks due to radiation were studied by simulation and compared to experiment.

The comparison was made for the displacements, vacancies of various target elements, ion ranges, that were of interest to the formation of Xe bubbles. We studied Xe-bubbles in the solid state when the internal bubble pressure was sufficiently high. The void and bubble formation rates are estimated based on a new mesoscale approach that combined experiment with the kinetic models validated by atomistic and Ab-initio simulations, that show its dependence on irradiation dose and irradiation temperature.