  This paper concerns the study of zirconium oxidation under irradiation with
high energetic Xe ions. The irradiations were performed on the IRRSUD beam line
at GANIL (Caen). The oxygen partial pressure was fixed at 10$^{-3}$ Pa and two
temperature conditions were used, either 480$\circ$C reached by Joule effect
heating or 280$\circ$C due to Xe energy deposition. Zirconia was fully
characterized by Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry, Transmission Electron
Microscopy and Grazing Angle X-ray Diffraction. Apparent diffusion coefficients
of oxygen in ZrO2 were determined from these experiments by using a model which
takes into account a surface exchange between oxygen gas and the ZrO2 surface.
These results are compared with thermal oxidation data.
