Effect of ion irradiation on the thermal conductivity of UO2 and U3O8 epitaxial layers

The effect of 2 MeV Ar+-ion irradiation on the thermal conductivity of epitaxial layers of UO2 and U3O8 was studied with time-domain thermoreflectance (TDTR) at temperatures between 323 and 658 K. The thermal conductivity of unirradiated UO2 is 10.2 W m(-1) K-1 at 323 K and scales with temperature like 1/T. Upon irradiation with doses >0.7 x 10(15) Ar+ cm(-2), the thermal conductivity decreases to a nearly constant value <4 W m(-1) K. By comparing the data to an analytic model, we report the point-scattering strength of irradiation induced defects in UO2. Unirradiated U3O8 has a thermal Conductivity of 1.6 W m(-1) K-1 at 333 K. Low and medium doses of Ar-ion irradiation decrease the thermal conductivity of U3O8 to <1.0 W m(-1) K-1. Unexpectedly, it is found that higher doses of Ark irradiation increased the conductivity of U3O8 to similar to 2.0 W m(-1) K-1. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.