Optical fiber sensors to improve the safety of nuclear power plants

Safety must always prevail in Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs), as shown at Fukushima-Daiichi. So, innovations are clearly needed to strengthen instrumentations, which went inoperative during this nuclear accident as a consequence of power supply losses. Possible improvements concern materials and structures, which may be remotely monitored thanks to Optical Fiber Sensors (OFS). We detail topics involving OFS helpful for monitoring, in nominal conditions as well as during a severe accident. They include distributed sensing (Rayleigh, Raman, Brillouin) for both temperature sensing and structure monitoring as well as H₂ concentration and ionizing radiation monitoring. For future plants, Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors are considered up to high temperature for sodium-cooled fast reactor monitoring. These applications can benefit from fiber advantages: sensor multiplexing, multi-km range, no risk-to-people, no common failure mode with other technologies, remote sensing, and the ability to operate in case of power supply lost in the NPP. (authors)