“A NEW MULTIVARIABLE SENSOR TECHNIQUE TO MEASURE TEMPERATURE, PRESSURE AND FLOW RATE IN NUCLEAR POWER PLANT”

Instrumentation and control (I&C) is an important element in the normal, abnormal and emergency operation of nuclear power plants. Through their equipment, modules, sensors, and transmitters, I&C systems measure thousands of variables and processes the data to activate pumps, valves, motors, and other electromechanical equipment that control the plant. Nuclear plant instrumentation can generally be classified into following four categories: (1) Nuclear, (2) Process, (3) Radiation Monitoring, and (4) Special measurements. Process contain instruments that measure non-nuclear processes such as reactor pressure, coolant or pressurizer level, steam flow, coolant temperature and flow, containment pressure, etc. Today, temperature, pressure, level, flow, and neutron flux are still primarily measured using conventional sensors such as resistance temperature detectors (RTDs), thermocouples, capacitance cells, bellows, force-balance sensors, and conventional neutron detectors although some advances have been made in developing new neutron detectors for nuclear power plants. As a result Nuclear Plant contain Some 10,000 sensors and detectors and 5,000 kilometres of I&C cables - representing a total mass of 1,000 tons, including up to 20 neutron detectors, 60 RTDs, as many as 100 thermocouples, and 500 to 2,500 pressure transmitters. This sensors, detectors and cables are behaved as a neutron absorber material so they reduce the neutron economy in reactor and results as a low power generation by plant. Also calibration of these sensors is difficult. To overcome with this problem this paper describes the technique that reduces the no of sensors, detectors and length of the cable in nuclear plant. In this new measuring technique we can measure pressure, temperature and flow rate by just one multivariable sensor. One sensor used for three different measurements. The advantages of integrated measuring instruments is that Reduce in instrumentation, power, wiring, cabling and installation. Multivariable sensors reduce requirements for purchasing, installing, powering, maintaining and documenting additional instruments.