Secondary emissions during fiber laser cutting of nuclear material

The laser process has been studied for dismantling work for more than 10 years, however there is almost no data available concerning secondary emissions generated during the process. These emissions are inevitable during the laser cutting process and can have detrimental effects in human health and in the equipment. In terms of safety, for nuclear decommissioning, is crucial to point out ways of controlling the emissions of the process. This paper gives indications about the parameters to be used in order to reduce these secondary emissions and about the influence of these parameters on the particles size distribution. In general, for producing minimal dross and fume emissions the beam focus should be placed on the surface of the material. The higher percentage of secondary emissions which present higher diameter, increases approximately linearly with the stand-off distance and with the use of low air pressure.