AI Enabled Neutron Flux Measurement and Virtual Calibration in Boiling Water Reactors

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Tunga, Anirudh, Heim, Jordan, Mueterthies, Michael, Gruenwald, Thomas, Nistor, Jonathan
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Tunga, Anirudh
Heim, Jordan
Mueterthies, Michael
Gruenwald, Thomas
Nistor, Jonathan
author_facet Tunga, Anirudh
Heim, Jordan
Mueterthies, Michael
Gruenwald, Thomas
Nistor, Jonathan
contents Accurately capturing the three dimensional power distribution within a reactor core is vital for ensuring the safe and economical operation of the reactor, compliance with Technical Specifications, and fuel cycle planning (safety, control, and performance evaluation). Offline (that is, during cycle planning and core design), a three dimensional neutronics simulator is used to estimate the reactor's power, moderator, void, and flow distributions, from which margin to thermal limits and fuel exposures can be approximated. Online, this is accomplished with a system of local power range monitors (LPRMs) designed to capture enough neutron flux information to infer the full nodal power distribution. Certain problems with this process, ranging from measurement and calibration to the power adaption process, pose challenges to operators and limit the ability to design reload cores economically (e.g., engineering in insufficient margin or more margin than required). Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are being used to solve the problems to reduce maintenance costs, improve the accuracy of online local power measurements, and decrease the bias between offline and online power distributions, thereby leading to a greater ability to design safe and economical reload cores. We present ML models trained from two deep neural network (DNN) architectures, SurrogateNet and LPRMNet, that demonstrate a testing error of 1 percent and 3 percent, respectively. Applications of these models can include virtual sensing capability for bypassed or malfunctioning LPRMs, on demand virtual calibration of detectors between successive calibrations, highly accurate nuclear end of life determinations for LPRMs, and reduced bias between measured and predicted power distributions within the core.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_17405
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle AI Enabled Neutron Flux Measurement and Virtual Calibration in Boiling Water Reactors
Tunga, Anirudh
Heim, Jordan
Mueterthies, Michael
Gruenwald, Thomas
Nistor, Jonathan
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Accurately capturing the three dimensional power distribution within a reactor core is vital for ensuring the safe and economical operation of the reactor, compliance with Technical Specifications, and fuel cycle planning (safety, control, and performance evaluation). Offline (that is, during cycle planning and core design), a three dimensional neutronics simulator is used to estimate the reactor's power, moderator, void, and flow distributions, from which margin to thermal limits and fuel exposures can be approximated. Online, this is accomplished with a system of local power range monitors (LPRMs) designed to capture enough neutron flux information to infer the full nodal power distribution. Certain problems with this process, ranging from measurement and calibration to the power adaption process, pose challenges to operators and limit the ability to design reload cores economically (e.g., engineering in insufficient margin or more margin than required). Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are being used to solve the problems to reduce maintenance costs, improve the accuracy of online local power measurements, and decrease the bias between offline and online power distributions, thereby leading to a greater ability to design safe and economical reload cores. We present ML models trained from two deep neural network (DNN) architectures, SurrogateNet and LPRMNet, that demonstrate a testing error of 1 percent and 3 percent, respectively. Applications of these models can include virtual sensing capability for bypassed or malfunctioning LPRMs, on demand virtual calibration of detectors between successive calibrations, highly accurate nuclear end of life determinations for LPRMs, and reduced bias between measured and predicted power distributions within the core.
title AI Enabled Neutron Flux Measurement and Virtual Calibration in Boiling Water Reactors
topic Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.17405