Study of an instrumentation system for a nuclear reactor plant based on optical fiber Bragg gratings

Amemiya, Kuniaki*; Nakazawa, Masaharu*; Ariyoshi, Masahiko; Ito, Keisuke

A new monitoring system of nuclear reactor plants by means of optical fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) was developed which have sensitivity in temperature, distortion and vibration. The reflective wavelength of FBGs was not influenced by gamma-ray irradiation up to 1.4MGy and by exposure to fast neutrons in excess of 10 sup14 n/cm sup2. A temperature-insensitive vibration sensing system was constructed and operated with no trouble in gamma-ray environments up to 100kGy. Furthermore, a multiple point vibration sensing system was designed and constructed. The system was successfully demonstrated on a cooling system at the "Yayoi" reactor. Thus, we tried to apply the monitoring system to a primary loop area of JOYO to confirm the applicability of FBG sensors for the commercial power reactors. Although a correlation of sodium flow in side pipes and vibration measured by FBG sensors was found before starting of the reactor, it became impossible after starting operation of the reactor because of a decline of signal amplitude. Investigating the reason, it was mainly caused by significant transmission losses at the splicing point and there were no problems with FBG sensors. Various methods, for example, using a more powerful light source and changing the splicing method, may be used to improve it in the future.