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Cerium dioxide (CeO 2 ) is a surrogate material for traditional nuclear fuels and an essential material for a wide variety of industrial applications both in its bulk and nanometer length scale. Despite this fact, the underlying physics of thermal conductivity (k L ), a crucial design parameter in industrial applications, has not received enough attention. In this article, a systematic investigation of the phonon transport properties was performed using ab initio calculations unified with the Boltzmann transport equation. An extensive examination of the phonon mode contribution, available three-phonon scattering phase space, mode Grüneisen parameter and mean free path (MFP) distributions were also conducted. To further augment theoretical predictions of the k L , measurements were made on specimens prepared by spark plasma sintering using the laser flash technique. Since the sample porosity plays a vital role in the value of measured k L , the effect of porosity on k L by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were investigated. Finally, we also determined the nanostructuring effect on the thermal properties of CeO 2 . Since CeO 2 films find application in various industries, the dependence of thickness on the in-plane and cross-plane k L for an infinite CeO 2 thin film was also reported.