Development and application of core diagnostics and monitoring for the Ringhals PWRS

Noise analysis and reactor diagnostics have been applied at the Ringhals PWRs for a long time. Through a collaboration with the Department of Reactor Physics, Chalmers University of Technology, methods for treating new problems were elaborated, and known methods were developed further to make them more effective or to suit specific applications. All these methods were tested in real measurements, and many of them have been used routinely afterwards. In this paper two particular new methods are described in detail: 1) the determination of the axial position of control rods from the axial shape of the neutron flux with neural network methods, and 2) the use of gamma thermometers for the determination of the MTC and for core flow estimation. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.