Nuclear Facility Instrumentation and Control Systems

The company dataPartner designs, projects, manufactures, tests and commissions devices for ex-core measurement of nuclear reactor neutron flux, reactor measurement and control systems, safety emergency chains, systems for manual and automatic reactor power control and operator consoles. In addition to operational offers for the implementation of specific deliveries based on the requests of nuclear facility operators or their large suppliers, dataPartner offers some ready-made solutions:

Diverse design of neutron instrumentation, which participates in ensuring safety functions is directly required by the INSAG-10 IAEA Defense in depth in nuclear safety standards (ČSN EN IEC 61513 provisions on defense in depth). Therefore, dataPartner is applying for the opportunity to supply its neutron instrumentation apparatus for SMR power modular reactors as a diversified solution. Due to the many years of experience with their development and many applications on various research reactors, this is a solution that has been matured for a long time and is proven in practice.

N16 concentration measurement is a measurement of reactor performance by evaluating the concentration of the N16 isotope. It is created inside the reactor by transmutation of oxygen O16 under the action of fast neutrons, so it is an integral measurement with a high informative value, which is independent of the distribution of the core and the position of the control rods. This measurement thus solves the physical problem of determining the exact value of the reactor thermal power (which still has to be compensated by a separate measurement). The cause of the current inaccuracies is the fact that systems that measure the neutron flux do so only at the locations of the detection chambers and here the flux can be influenced by the position of the control rods, the distribution and burnup of the reactor core. Therefore, it is advantageous to use dataPartner equipment in combination with a less influenceable system for measuring reactor performance by the integral method, using determining the concentration of the N16 isotope.

Pipeline integrity detectors enable automatic continuous monitoring pipe welds integrity near the reactor using the DCPD method (direct current potential drop). The use of these detectors is particularly advantageous in power reactors where pipe expansion occurs, which leads to periodic stress on their welds and the possible formation of cracks. Therefore, it is currently necessary to regularly x-ray these welds, which, however, is associated with radiation exposure to workers who perform the x-ray of welds near the reactor. Using the detectors will be very advantageous and important, especially in small modular SMR reactors, where, due to their size and design specifics, the welds may not be easily accessible for periodic x-rays scanning.