Method and apparatus for monitoring flux deviations in a nuclear reactor
AssigneeWestinghouse Electric Corp.
InventorFred J. Frank
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus for sensitively monitoring flux deviations along a given core plane of a nuclear reactor as detected by a plurality of flux sensitive detectors positioned around the periphery of the core within the monitoring plane. The detector responses are averaged and the respective detector outputs exceeding the average are summed and compared to a preselected design setpoint. Sums of the detector outputs exceeding the setpoint are annunciated alerting the plant operator to take corrective action to avoid surpassing design limits.
Claims14
An improved method for identifying power maldistributions within a given plane of a core of a nuclear reactor comprising the steps of:
- measuring a parameter representative of the power within the core at a preset number of locations within the given plane;
- supplying an electrical output representative of the power measured at the respective preset locations;
- electrically averaging the respective measured powers;
- electrically summing the electrical outputs representative of the measured power at the respective locations which deviate in a given direction from the average measured power;
- comparing a value representative of the sum to a predetermined setpoint;
- supplying an alarm when the sum exceeds the setpoint.
Apparatus for identifying maldistributions within a given plane of a core of a nuclear reactor comprising:
- a plurality of detectors positioned to measure a parameter representative of the power within the core at a preset number of locations within the given plane, each of the plurality of detectors being responsive to the measured parameter at the corresponding detector location to provide a representative electrical output;
- means for averaging the respective detector outputs;
- means for summing the respective detector outputs that deviate in a given direction from the average;
- and
- means for comparing the sum to a preset setpoint and annunciating a signal when the sum exceeds the setpoint.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.