Measurement of plutonium spectrum using laser induced breakdown spectroscopy; High resolution spectroscopy (350-670nm)

Akaoka, Katsuaki ; Oba, Masaki ; Miyabe, Masabumi   ; Otobe, Haruyoshi  ; Wakaida, Ikuo  

Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) method is an attractive technique because real-time, in-situ and remote elemental analysis is possible without any sample preparation. The LIBS technique can be applied for analyzing elemental composition of samples under severe environments such as the estimation of impurities in the next generation nuclear fuel material containing minor actinide (MA) and the detection of fuel debris in the post-accident nuclear core reactor of TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. For applying LIBS to the analysis of nuclear fuel materials, it is indispensable to identify the emission spectrum and its intensity on impurities intermingled within complex emission spectra of matrix elements such as uranium (U) and plutonium (Pu). In the present study, an echelle spectrometer with a resolving power of 50,000 was employed to identify spectra of plutonium of wavelength ranging from 350 to 670nm. The 465 atomic spectra and 341 ionic spectra can be identified. We have confirmed that the measured wavelength of spectra is consistent with published values.