Technical development of non-contacting remote analysis for nuclear fuel materials by combination of LIBS and ablation resonance absorption spectroscopy

Wakaida, Ikuo  ; Akaoka, Katsuaki ; Oba, Masaki ; Maruyama, Yoichiro; Miyabe, Masabumi   ; Otobe, Haruyoshi  ; Kato, Masaaki; Niki, Hideaki*

By the combination of laser induced breakdown spectroscopy and laser ablation resonance spectroscopy, we are developing the non-contacting remote analysis for the measurements of impurities and isotopes in a nuclear fuel materials. The purpose of the study and some recent results are discussed. The ablated amount was estimated by the microscope observation of the crater. Plasma expansion process was observed to be well in agreement with the blast wave model. In the characteristics of double pulse LIBS, it was confirmed that the strong emission was maintained even in the atmosphere pressure. For the impurity analysis, deconvolution technique made it possible to determine the impurity component from an overlapped spectrum. The performance of impurity measurement of order 100 ppm in uranium oxide was shown. In the isotope measurement, high resolution observation conditions were performed, and applying to uranium oxide, isotope detection of U in natural uranium was succeeded.