Wide Range Neutron Flux Measuring Channel for Aerospace Application

The use of classical techniques for neutron flux measurements in nuclear reactors involves the switching between several detection chains as the power grows up to 10 decades. In space applications where mass and size constraints are of key significance, such volume of hardware represents a clear disadvantage. Instead of requiring different instruments for each reactor operating range (start-up, ramping-up, and nominal power), a single instrument chain should be desirable. A Wide Range Neutron Detector (WRND) system, combining a classic pulse Counting Channel with a Campbell's theorem based Fluctuation Channel can be implemented for the monitoring and control of a space nuclear reactor. Such an instrument will allow for a reduction in the complexity of space-based nuclear instrumentation and control systems. In this presentation we will discuss the criteria and tradeoffs involved in the development of such a system. We will focus particularly on the characteristics of the System On Chip (SOC) and the DSP board used to implement this instrument