Localization of a Vibrating Control Rod Pin in Pressurized Water Reactors Using the Neutron Flux and Current Noise

It has been proposed that the fluctuations of the neutron current, called the current noise, can be used in addition to the scalar noise in reactor diagnostic problems. The possibility of the localization of a vibrating control rod pin in a pressurized water reactor control assembly is investigated by using the scalar neutron noise and the two-dimensional radial current noise as measured at one central point in the assembly. An explicit localization technique is elaborated in which the searched position is determined as the absolute minimum of a minimization function. The technique is investigated in numerical simulations. The results of the simulation tests show the potential applicability of the method.