Laser-heating and Radiance Spectrometry for the Study of Nuclear Materials in Conditions Simulating a Nuclear Power Plant AccidentDario Manara 1, Luca Soldi 1,2,4, Sara Mastromarino 1,3,5, Kostantinos Boboridis 1, Davide Robba 1, Luka Vlahovic 1, Rudy Konings 1
1European Commission, Joint Research Centre, 2Energy Department, Politecnico di Milano, 3Department of Chemical Physics, Sapienza - Università di Roma, 4CEA Saclay, 5TU Delft
We present experiments in which real nuclear fuel, cladding, and containment materials are laser heated to temperatures beyond 3,000 K while their behavior is studied by radiance spectroscopy and thermal analysis. These experiments simulate, on a laboratory scale, the formation of a lava-phase following a nuclear reactor core meltdown.