Development of an electrometer/amplifier and filter set for analysis of reactor noise

In nuclear power reactors, the neutron detector signal is dependent on the number of fissions and the reactor power level. The detector signal can be divided into two components: a D C component, proportional to the average value and an A C component, which is the fluctuating part superimposed to the D C component. The analysis of the fluctuating part of the signal is called noise analysis and allow us to investigate phenomena occurring within the reactor vessel, such as vibrational of fuel elements and coolant density, temperature, pressure and flow changes. On the other hand, the measure of the static D C part allows us to measure the local power density. This work describes the development of a personal computer based signal conditioning card that, together with a personal computer commercial data acquisition card, can be used for noise analysis and reactivity measurements of signals coming from ionization chambers or SPD's. (author)