Study of structural material resulting from the nuclear fuel cycle using SEM-WDX, EPMA and SIMS techniques

Abstract.

Within the context of reprocessing irradiated nuclear fuel from nuclear power reactors, fuel rods are cut into pieces for dissolution in fuel reprocessing plants so as to separate the fuel from the cladding material. The structural waste coming from cladding – called “hulls” – is conditioned in specifically-designed matrices for disposal. Standard characterisations of these hulls, such as neutron emission measurements or gamma spectrometry analyses, have already been performed on such samples. This paper describes a series of local characterisations that were performed on these hulls using various microanalysis techniques. Three techniques were used: a scanning electron microscope equipped with a wavelength dispersive X-ray detector, an electron probe microanalyser, and a secondary ion mass spectrometer. This paper describes the analytical methodology used to better understand the physico-chemical behaviour of the different radioelements contaminating the hulls.