LIBS development and Applications for Nuclear Material Analysis

Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is a powerful technique for determining the elemental composition of materials based on measuring line emission from excited ions and neutral atoms in a transient laser-produced plasma. Nearly all the elements, even the light ones, can be simultaneously analysed at atmospheric pressure and without any preparation, or with limited sample preparation. Able to perform fast and remote analyses, it looks quite well suited to analyzing nuclear materials. Usually, quantitative analysis becomes possible as soon as the calibration curve is performed using reference samples. The presentation will first deal with the general aspects and characteristics of the technique. Examples of representative applications developed by Cea for the nuclear industry will be presented. The interest of the technique has been demonstrated for the analysis of simulated Ce-U Mox pellets or for the study of radionuclide migration through porous soil. As remote analysis is concerned, analytical results on samples isolated into glove boxes or hot cells will be discussed. The demonstrated versatility of this technique will allow online monitoring of reductive liquid-liquid extraction process as well as analysis of solid salt or metal samples. Other results obtained with a specific LIBS system designed for onsite measurements during decommissioning of nuclear installations will also be presented. As microanalysis is concerned, the microprobe LIBS instrument developed by Cea will be described and results of high resolution chemical mappings of simulated Mox nuclear fuel will be presented