High-Speed Data Acquisition System to Measure Low-Level Current from Self-Powered Flux Detectors in CANDU Nuclear Reactors.

摘要

Self-powered flux detectors are used in CANDU nuclear power reactors to determine the spatial neutron flux distribution in the reactor core for use by both the reactor control and safety systems. To establish the dynamic response of different types of flux detectors, the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories have an ongoing experimental irradiation program in the NRU research reactor for which a data acquistion system has been developed. The system described in this paper is used to measure the currents from the detectors both at a slow, regular logging interval, and at a rapid, adaptive rate following a reactor shutdown. Currents that range from 100 pA to 1 mA full scale can be measured from up to 38 detectors and stored at sampling rates of up to 20 samples per second. The dynamic characteristics of the detectors can be computed from the stored records. The data acquisition system comprises a DEC LSI-11/23 microcomputer, dual cartridge disks, floppy disks, a hard copy and a video display terminal. The RT-11 operating system is used and all application programs are written in FORTRAN. (Atomindex citation 15:022124)