X-ray computed micro-tomography (CMT) is a non-destructive technique for three-dimensional (3D) imaging from projection data. For many years it has been extensively used at synchrotron radiation sources to characterize the microstructure of materials. By recording high-resolution x-ray transmission images (projections) at different angular positions CMT allows to reconstruct a 3D map of the attenuation coefficient of an object. CMT is a relatively slow technique because the collection of an entire dataset requires several minutes. For this reason it is used for characterizing static systems. "In-situ" experiments have been performed only in a few limited cases. Moreover CMT is mainly used to characterize low Z materials because high Z materials, like metals or ceramics, require a high-energy x-ray beam and special optics that do not suffer of radiation damage. Here we show how it is possible to overcome these limitations. Combining the high flux and high energy of the ID15 white x-ray beam with a new ultra-fast imaging detector and a new mirror optics, it is possible to record a full high-resolution 3D dataset in 10 seconds. This is two orders of magnitude faster than what was achieved before at third generation synchrotron sources. The very high speed allows for the first time to perform "in-situ" studies of systems evolving in the timescale of few seconds. Applications are the study of the micro structural evolution in powder samples during sintering process, partial re-melting in semisolid phases and solidification of alloys, grain growth and morphological evolution, diffusion etc. We present some preliminary results obtained on the solidification process of a binary alloy (Figure 1) and on the sintering of metallic powders.

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