A new method for measurement of safety rod drop times

A method for measurement of safety rod drop times is proposed that is based on a fast electromagnetic transducer and an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) connected to a computer system. Evaluation of recorded data is conducted by computer codes that were developed. The first measurements performed at the fast-thermal core HERBE constructed in the RB heavy water nuclear reactor at the Nuclear Engineering Laboratory of the Vinca Institute showed that a relative uncertainty of less than 6% can be achieved in determination of the rod drop time with time intervals ranging from 0.4 to 10.0 s.