Application of Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) analysis to molten alloy production process

Ozu, Akira  ; Tachi, Yoshiaki  ; Arita, Yuji*

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) analysis has been applied to the molten alloy production process, in which simulated metals (Zr, Cu, Sm, Ce) are used instead of nuclear metallic fuels contained minor actinide (MA), with the aim of in-situ monitoring the elementary composition of the surface of the molten alloy in a chamber and vapor particles generated from the surface of the molten alloy. The variation in the ratio of elementary composition of the surface of the molten alloy in the crucible was successfully observed depending on temperature of the crucible. The elementary composition of the vapor particles appeared in the molten alloy chamber was also measured. The practical experimental results show that LIBS technique is very useful for investigating the elementary composition in the process and understanding the behavior of molten alloy in the crucible.