Atmospheric pressure ionisation - mass spectrometry for argon online monitoring in ASTRID

Safety, operability, waste transmutation and mastered investment costs are key issues for the development of generation IV reactors, especially sodium cooled fast reactors. To achieve a development scheduled around 2040, the nuclear energy division of CEA, France, is studying a prototype called ASTRID (Advanced Sodium Technological Reactor for Industrial Demonstration) which is in its conceptual design phase. To achieve a high level of maturity, In Service Inspection and Repair is very important, in particular fuel cladding failure detection. If such a failure occurs, fission products Xenon and Krypton are released. Their fast and sensitive detection is a challenge. The use of a commercial API-MS is evaluated in this work. Detection limits below 10 ppt have been measured for Kr 84 and for Xe 132. (authors)