COBEM International congress of mechanical engineering, 19

Abstract

The IPR-R1 research nuclear reactor at the Nuclear Technology Development Center - CDTN, in Belo Horizonte,is a TRIGA Mark I type reactor. The IPR-R1 is a pool reactor, ant the fuel elements at the core are cooled by water natural convection. The heat removal capacity of this process is great enough for safety reasons at the current maximum 250 kW power levels of the reactor. However, a heat removal system is provided for removing heat from the reactor pool reactor. The water is pumped through a heat exchanger, where heat is transferred from the primary to the secondary loop. Power monitoring of nuclear reactors is always done by means of neutronics instruments (neutron flux measurement). In the IPR-R1 the power is measured by four nuclear channels. This work presents the results and methodology for the monitoring the power of this reactor by thermal processes. An improved method for thermal measuring channel is described using the fuel element and the water pool temperatures. Another thermal measuring channel consisted in the steady-state energy balance ofthe primary and secondary cooling loops of the reactor. For this balance, the inlet and outlet temperatures and the water flow of the cooling loops are measured.