Abstract
To date it has been difficult to identify active material originating from the oxidation products of cladding alloys in the cooling circuits of power reactors. In an attempt to solve this problem, a sample of cladding oxide was characterized fully using secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), exploiting the high sensitivity and ability of this technique to obtain chemical information from relatively small areas. However, if SIMS is to be used for analysis of fuel clad oxide, it is important that the required sensitivity factors be determined for the apparatus in which the analysis is to be carried out. For this reason, a number of Fe–Ni–Cr standard alloys were investigated to obtain sensitivity factors for the PHI Perkin-Elmer Model 3500 SIMS II apparatus. The values obtained were then used for the analysis of 20Cr–25Ni–Nb fuel clad material and its oxide.
MST/821
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