First industrial application of MARINE, a new wide range neutron monitoring system

MARINE is a research project conducted at CEA/Saclay research centre. It is a new concept of wide range neutron fluence rate monitoring system. The sensor is a very common one, a well known fission chamber which has been used by nuclear industry for years. The innovation lies in the digital electronics that allows wide range operation on more than 12 decades, with tuneable compromise between response time and accuracy. After having been a demonstrator, MARINE has been industrialized. A CEA research reactor has been the first reactor to be equipped by this new instrument for its neutronic Instrumentation and Control. First divergence occurred on August 2002. After having recalled the basic principle of this instrument, we will give a report of the first divergence results, demonstrating all the benefits for the end user. (author)