Methodology of the Westinghouse dynamic rod worth measurement technique

Conference · Tue Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1991 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States)

OSTI ID:6983485

Chao, Y A; Chapman, D M; Easter, M E; Hill, D J; Hoerner, J A ^[1]; Kurtz, P N ^[2]

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1. Westinghouse Electric Corp., Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
2. Wisconsin Electric Power Co., Two Rivers (United States)

During zero-power physics testing, plant operations personnel use one of various techniques to measure the reactivity worth of the control rods to confirm shutdown margin. A simple and fast procedure for measuring rod worths called dynamic rod worth measurement (DRWM) has been developed at Westinghouse. This procedure was tested at the recent startups of Point Beach Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 cycle 20 and Unit 2 cycle 18. The results of these tests show that DRWM measures rod worths with accuracy comparable to that of both boron dilution and rod bank exchange measurements. The DRWM procedure is a fast process of measuring the reactivity worth of individual banks by inserting and withdrawing the bank continuously at the maximum stepping speed without changing the boron concentration and recording the signals of the ex-core detectors.

• OSTI ID: 6983485
• Report Number(s): CONF-921102--
• Journal Information: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States), Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States) Vol. 66; ISSN 0003-018X; ISSN TANSAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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