Importance weighting of local flux measurements to improve reactivity predictions in nuclear systems

Abstract

Abstract The reactivity monitoring is a key aspect for the safe operation of nuclear reactors, especially for subcritical source-driven systems. Various methods are available for both off-line and on-line reactivity determination from direct measurements carried out on the reactor. Usually the methods are based on the inverse point kinetic model applied to signals from neutron detectors and results may be severely affected by spatial and spectral effects. Such effects need to be compensated and correction procedures have to be applied. In this work, a new approach is proposed, by using the full information from different local measurements to generate a global signal through a proper weighting of the signals provided by single neutron detectors. A weighting techique based on the use of the adjoint flux proves to be efficient in improving the prediction capability of inverse techniques. The idea is applied to the recently developed algorithm, named MAρTA, that can be used in both off-line and on-line modes.