Remote Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

LIBS has been demonstrated to provide
important information when attempting to characterise materials in nuclear
environments. A major limitation with LIBS is that present equipment cannot be
deployed easily within difficult to access facilities, such as in storage ponds or cells,
where access may only be possible through limited sized penetrations. The purpose
of this project will be to design a small scale LIBS probe that can be mounted within a
submersed or ground based Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV). The project will aim
to characterise the capabilities of the LIBS device, which will involve understanding
what information it can identify when applied to different materials, how long it takes
to collect a sample and how stable the robotic platform needs to be for it to acquire
usable data. A particular focus of the work will be to understand how a LIBS tool can
be deployed within the legacy ponds when integrated within the AVEXIS ROV that has
already been developed by the University of Manchester.