LMFBR Instrumentation and Control

Reactor control and core surveillance instrumentation are important to the safety and economics of LMFBR design and operation. Considerable world wide effort has been expended during the past 10 years on such instrumentation. The results of these efforts in France will be tested in Phenix and the U.K. will test theirs in the PFR reactor when these reactors start up in 1973. Meanwhile, development efforts are continuing on a broad front in the U.S., Euope, Japan on LMFBR instrumentation, particularly in the areas of: high temperature neutron detection acoustic monitoring core exit and entrant coolant monitoring sodium process instrumentation (e.g. leak, level, pressure, flow) detection of incipient failure of critical sodium system components (e.g. reactor vessel, heat exchanger tubes, pipes) This paper summarizes LMFBR core instrumentation and control development in the U.S. and Europe.