Development of a fiber-coupled laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy instrument for analysis of underwater debris in a nuclear reactor core

Saeki, Morihisa; Iwanade, Akio; Ito, Chikara   ; Wakaida, Ikuo  ; Thornton, B.*; Sakka, Tetsuo*; Oba, Hironori  

To inspect post-accident nuclear core reactor of the TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, a transportable fiber-coupled LIBS instrument was developed. The developed LIBS instrument was designed to analyze the underwater sample in high-radiation field by single-pulse breakdown with gas flow or double-pulse breakdown. To check the feasibility of the assembled fiber-coupled LIBS instrument to the inspection inside Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, we investigated (1) influence of radiation dose on optical transmittance of the laser delivery fiber, (2) survey of the LIBS techniques to analyze the underwater sample and (3) candidates of emission lines for analysis of the debris. By employing the selected emission lines, we demonstrated that the developed LIBS instrument can analyze the simulated debris underwater by the single-pulse breakdown with the gas flow with high signal to noise ratio.