Reduction of stored energy in a heavily irradiated ceramic

The decrease of stored energy that accompanies redamage of a metamict ceramic is compared with the calculated elastic strain energy resulting from the volume misfit between the disordered inclusions and the crystalline matrix. In the case of self-damaged CaPuTi2O7 it is found that the elastic energy contributes no more than 20% to the observed energy decrease. The major part of this decrease must be attributed to rearrangement of atoms by the redamage process into configurations of lower energy.