Although research into radiation damage dates back to the 19th century and the study of metamict materials, the advent of man-made nuclear materials greatly accelerated our understanding of this phenomenon. Recently, advances in molecular dynamics (MD) methods have pushed the detailed description of the structure around radiation-induced defects well beyond that achieved with the standard models developed into the 1970s. Great improvements have even been achieved in calculations on elemental plutonium, where determining interatomic potentials has proven to be especially challenging. Although a wealth of experimental data exists on radiation-damaged systems, most of it is not suitable for detailed structural comparisons to the MD calculations. Local structure methods are potentially well suited, and nuclear magnetic resonance and extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) measurements indeed demonstrate a high sensitivity to radiation damage.
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