Statistical analysis of reactor thermal power by the use of thermal and radiation methods in the first unit at the Armenian nuclear power station

An important factor in providing safe operation in a nuclear power station unit is to determine the thermal power of the reactor with an error of 1-2%. Operational methods have been proposed for measuring the thermal power by statistical computer calculations. Elsewhere, operational correlation dispersion methods were considered for determining the thermal power by means of radiation meters, these meters operating with the neutrons leaking from the reactor containment (power meters -PM) or on the radiation from /sup 16/N in the coolant (loop detector-LD). The data entering these meters are used in determining discrete quantities of statistical nature, and this enables one to obtain given errors in the readings of the PM (N /sub PM/ ) and LD (N /sub II/ ). Also, a major feature of a radiation meter is that N /sub PM/ and N /sub LD/ are strictly proportional to the thermal power of the reactor. In view of this, the authors perform a combined statistical analysis of the data obtained by these methods and those provided by the standard thermal detectors in order to define the reactor thermal power more accurately and to determine the errors.