Determination of the defect creation mechanism in fluoroapatite

Most of strategies to immobilize actinides are concerned with their incorpo ration in dedicated solid matrices for a long disposal-time. Chemical durab ility of these matrices is a major problem. Radiation damages due to a-deca y events can strongly reduced it. The defect creation mechanism has been de termined in fluoroapatite using a transmission electron microscope (TEM) on line with an ion implanter. At room temperature, the defect creation is co ntrolled by amorphization directly in the cascade. From this result and pub lished data on the defect annealing in this material, the disorder evolutio n as a function of time has been established. An application concerning the incorporation of Cm-244 is considered. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.