Modelling of fission gas release from irradiated UO2 fuel under high-temperature annealing conditions

The new model for the vacancy field evolution in grains during annealing of irradiated fuel was developed and implemented in the MFPR code. The model simulates time and spatial variation of the vacancy concentration in the presence of extended vacancy sources (grain boundaries and dislocations) and sinks (growing intragranular bubbles). Being combined with the models for dislocation creep and for bubbles biased migration in the vacancy gradient, the new model self-consistently describes the processes of gas release and microstructure evolution observed in the annealing tests.