Diagnosis methods based on noise analysis at Cernavoda NPP, Romania

This paper describes a recent noise analysis of the neutronic signals provided by in-core flux detectors (ICFD) and ion chambers (IC). This analysis is part of on-going program developed for Unit 1 of the Cernavoda NPP, Romania, with the following main objectives: prediction of detector failures based on pattern recognition, determination of prompt fractions in steady states and detection of abnormal mechanical vibrations in the reactor core. The introduction presents briefly the reactor, the location of ICFD's and IC's. The second section presents the data acquisition systems and their capabilities. The paper continues with a brief presentation of the numerical methods used for analysis (section 3). The most significant results can be found in section 4, while section 5 concludes about useful information that can be obtained from the neutronic signals at high power during steady-state operation.(author)