A Multivariate Statistical Pattern Recognition System for Reactor Noise Analysis

A multivariate statistical pattern recognition system for reactor noise analysis was developed. The basis of the system is a transformation for decoupling correlated variables and algorithms for inferring probability density functions. The system is adaptable to a variety of statistical properties of the data, and it has learning, tracking, and updating capabilities. System design emphasizes control of the false-alarm rate. The ability of the system to learn normal patterns of reactor behavior and to recognize deviations from these patterns was evaluated by experiments at the ORNL High-Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR). Power perturbations of less than 0.1% of the mean value in selected frequency ranges were detected by the system.