Title: Stochastic simulation of destruction processes in self-irradiated materials
Author(s):

	T. Patsahan (Institute for Condensed Matter Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 1 Svientsitskii St., 79011 Lviv, Ukraine) ,
	A. Taleb (PSL Research University, Chimie ParisTech — CNRS, Institut de Recherche de Chimie Paris, Paris 75005, France; Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, 75231, France) ,
	J. Stafiej (Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University, Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Warsaw, Poland) ,
	M. Holovko (Institute for Condensed Matter Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 1 Svientsitskii St., 79011 Lviv, Ukraine) ,
	J.P. Badiali (Institute for Condensed Matter Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 1 Svientsitskii St., 79011 Lviv, Ukraine; Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, 75231, France)

Self-irradiation damages resulting from fission processes are common phenomena observed in nuclear fuel containing (NFC) materials. Numerous α-decays lead to local structure transformations in NFC materials. The damages appearing due to the impacts of heavy nuclear recoils in the subsurface layer can cause detachments of material particles. Such a behaviour is similar to sputtering processes observed during a bombardment of the material surface by a flux of energetic particles. However, in the NFC material, the impacts are initiated from the bulk. In this work we propose a two-dimensional mesoscopic model to perform a stochastic simulation of the destruction processes occurring in a subsurface region of NFC material. We describe the erosion of the material surface, the evolution of its roughness and predict the detachment of the material particles. Size distributions of the emitted particles are obtained in this study. The simulation results of the model are in a qualitative agreement with the size histogram of particles produced from the material containing lava-like fuel formed during the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster.

Key words: nuclear fuel containing material, self-irradiation damage, destruction, roughness, stochastic computer simulation, sputtering
PACS: 02.50.-r, 23.70.+j, 05.50.+q, 46.50.+a, 46.65.+g

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