LOFT instrumentation: An overview of challenges and developments

The Loss-of-Fluid Test (LOFT) reactor is an integral test facility, devoted to an investigation of the thermal-hydraulic and fuel behavior of a reactor system during off-normal conditions. The requirement to measure important parameters at many points within the reactor has led to a number of advances in the state-of-the-art of experimental instrumentation as applied to an operating reactor. Since LOFT is an operating nuclear reactor, the instruments must survive full Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) operating conditions, and be able to measure various off-normal conditions. The instruments developed and applied on LOFT include specialized velocity, density, liquid level, and mass flow instruments, as well as a variety of specialized fuel behavior instrumentation. These instruments have been excellent, both in survivability and production of data