On-line system for monitoring of boiling in nuclear reactor fuel assemblies

The performance of the boiling detection system has been tested on boiling signals coming from the research reactor HOR during experiments with the NIOBE boiling setup. Several detection methods utilizing frequency domain analysis have been tested both on- and off-line. Results of these methods indicate that boiling detection is possible in real-time even in the incipient stage of the boiling. Both DC and AC components of the in-core and ex-core neutron detector signals can be used for boiling detection; these two components provide complementary information. Advanced signal analysis application to the DC signals may give information about the dynamic changes of the reactor, provided that the changes of the signal exceed the inherent noise of the measured channel. At the same time, AC signal analysis will characterize the changes even in the inherent signal fluctuation level. Boiling experiments of HOR and the methods implemented for signal analysis validates the techniques used for these experiments. (orig./HP)