Difference in low energy plasma excitation and chemical reactivity of rare gases

The gas release behavior of heavy rare gases such as Xe and Kr formed as major fission products in fuel pellets plays an important role on the reliability of fuel claddings due to increase the internal pressure. To clarify the chemical characteristics of rare gases is useful to inhibit the gas release and to improve the radioactive waste management and to the industrial application. On this study, the chemical reactivity was examined using the low energy plasma excitation techniques and oxidation in oxygen atmosphere. Two types of RF sources of the induced couple and static capacity types were used as the low energy plasma source. The electron density in plasma of rare gases was dependent on the binding energy of each gas. The large difference in electron densities among rare gases was typically observed in the induced couple type plasma, because of the high production yield at wall surfaces covered with low energy electrons. It was suggested that the chemical compounds were formed in the condensed atmosphere as fuels tubes. (author)