Abstract: A method for the detection of mercury or other heavy metals in a gas stream comprises the steps of: providing a pulsed microwave power supply; supplying a microwave generator with power from the pulsed microwave power supply; using the microwave generator to power a short circuited waveguide to create a plasma torch located in a chamber; feeding a sample of the gas stream to the plasma torch; using the plasma torch to transform oxidized elements in the gas stream to atomic elements; and analyzing by atomic fluorescence of the gas stream having the atomic elements with an excitation lamp for the presence of at least one metal.