Post Irradiation Examination (PIE) is the study of used nuclear materials such as nuclear fuel. It has several purposes. It is known that by examination of used fuel that the failure modes which occur during normal use (and the manner in which the fuel will behave during an accident) can be studied. In addition information is gained which enables the users of fuel to assure themselves of its quality and it also assists in the development of new fuels. After major accidents the core (or what is left of it) is normally subject to PIE in order to find out what happened. One site where PIE is done is the ITU which is the EU centre for the study of highly radioactive materials.
Materials in a high radiation environment (such as a reactor) can undergo unique behaviors such as swelling and non-thermal creep.  If there are nuclear reactions within the material (such as what happens in the fuel), the stoichiometry will also change slowly over time.  These behaviors can lead to new material properties, cracking, and fission gas release: