Surface temperature transients from pulsed laser heating of UO2

Surface heating of UO2 by a pulsed laser was investigated theoretically and experimentally. Targets of solid uranium dioxide in vacuum were rapidly heated to peak temperatures of 3700 K, as measured by a fast-response automatic optical pyrometer. The measured target surface temperatures were compared with a one-dimensional heat transport model that accounts for conduction and melting in the solid and ablation and radiation from the surface. Congruent vaporization of UO2 was assumed. The measured temporal and spatial characteristics of the laser beam as well as temperature-dependent physical and thermodynamic properties of UO2 are used as input to the calculations. Agreement of the theory with the measurements was further validated by post-irradiation microscopic examination of the target surface. Additional tests were performed to assess qualitatively the attenuation of laser light and thermal radiation from the surface by the vapor blow-off from the target. This effect was found to be insignificant. (orig.)