Advanced Process Instrumentation System for Next-Generation Nuclear Reactors

The next generation of reactors will provide safe, reliable, and clean electricity as well as enable new applications for nuclear energy including hydrogen production, industrial heat generation, and water desalination. However, the design and operating characteristics of next-generation reactors (e.g. elevated temperatures, increased radiation, corrosive coolants, extended refueling cycles, compact plant designs) challenge the performance of existing nuclear grade process instrumentation critical to the safe and efficient operation of the reactor. Thus, research and development is needed as proposed here to develop an advanced instrumentation system that can be used in different types of next-generation nuclear reactors to accurately and reliably measure critical parameters such as temperature, flow, and level. To support the timely development, demonstration, and deployment of next-generation nuclear reactor technologies, a research and development effort is proposed here to adapt a temperature sensor developed at the Idaho National Laboratory to enable the sensor to measure not only distributed temperature but also flow and level. Data will be collected through laboratory testing and analyzed to optimize the sensor design and to validate the proposed measurement techniques. This work, which will be performed in partnership with the Idaho National Laboratory, will result in a robust multi-element sensor probe that can be incorporated into an advanced process instrumentation system for the next generation of reactors to measure temperature, flow, and level as well as facilitate in-situ sensor performance verification and process and component health monitoring, diagnostics, and prognostics. The key findings and results of this project will be shared with next-generation reactor developers interested in deploying this technology in non-nuclear testbeds, followed by demonstration reactors, and eventually commercial power plants. The research and development effort proposed here will employ a hands-on approach to produce an advanced instrumentation system to measure temperature, flow, and level in next-generation nuclear reactors. During this project, data will be collected from available sensors installed in thermal-hydraulic test loops and analyzed to establish optimal sensor design specifications. An optimized sensor will then be fabricated according to those specifications, and its static and dynamic performance will be determined. The technologies to enable the simultaneous measurement of temperature, flow, and level using this optimized sensor will be demonstrated and validated through laboratory testing. The results of this work will be used to design an advanced process instrumentation system for next-generation reactors which will be built in Phase II. In the short-term, the commercialization of the project will involve providing portable and configurable instrumentation systems to next-generation reactor developers for non-nuclear testbeds built to validate models and support licensing applications. In the long-term, the product of this project will be incorporated into the actual monitoring and control systems of next-generation nuclear reactors such as advanced, space, and small-or micro-modular reactors to enable remote autonomous operations and reduce maintenance costs among other benefits.