Acoustic measurement infrastructure to characterize nuclear reactor operation

Research reactors for the development of new nuclear technologies are used to test efficiency and safety of novel advances. Experiments performed in research reactors would ideally have in-situ measurements to monitor the progress and performance of these advanced tests. The reactor core is a particularly severe environment for sensors and instrumentation. This paper will discuss an Acoustic Measurement Infrastructure (AMI) installed at the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR). The AMI involves many intrinsic subcomponents. Intrinsic and cyclic acoustic signals generated by the operation of the primary coolant pumps are collected using acoustic receivers and processed. The characteristics of the recorded intrinsic signals will identify the process state of the ATR during operation. There are a number of useful findings, which the AMI signals enable by noting signatures in processed data. This paper will discuss the AMI results obtained from the ATR and the unique processing algorithm based on the Short Time Fast Fourier Transform of cyclic signals. By AMI monitoring of the pressure pulses from the primary coolant pumps in the ATR, it has been revealed that there are a number of useful signatures that can be identified. The signatures reveal information about the operational state of the reactor and can be used to identify anomalous conditions (if any) of the reactor under different operating regimes.