Secondary ion mass spectrometry of irradiated nuclear fuel and cladding: An overview

The principles and operating modes of secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) are first described after which the different methods of quantification are summarised. Some current applications of SIMS in nuclear fuel and cladding research are then reviewed after briefly considering the modifications that are needed to allow a SIMS instrument to be used for the analysis of highly radioactive materials. Amongst the applications reported are the investigation of the behaviour of fission gas xenon and the volatile fission products tellurium, iodine and caesium in UO2 nuclear fuel, measurement of the radial distribution of Pu isotopes in mixed oxide (MOX) fuel and of the radial distribution of Gd isotopes in (U,Gd)O2 fuel, and determination of the distribution of Li and B in the external oxide layer on Zircaloy cladding. It is evident from the large amount of new information gained that SIMS is a powerful complementary technique to electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) in these fields of study.