A Simple All-Optical Water Level Monitoring System Based on Wavelength Division Multiplexing with an Arrayed Waveguide Grating

We propose and demonstrate a simple water level monitoring system based on the wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) for the spent fuel pool (SFP) at a nuclear power plant. The basic principle is based on the measurement of the optical power spectra by the Fresnel reflection according to the change of the refractive index at the end facet of the optical fiber tip (OFT). An arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) is employed to achieve multi-channel sensing capability with a C-band broadband light source (BLS) based on amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). The feasibility of the proposed scheme is investigated with a simulation and experimentation. We also investigate the limiting factor for remote transmission. The system performance is degraded by the Rayleigh backscattering of the BLS light, but it can be operated over long distances within 10 km with 5 dB of difference peak power margin.