TPF 
7 PAF: Tel 
Reactor 
FIG. 1. 
Primary coolant 
=——-= Steam 
eeees HO in downcomer 
—-— Condensate (feedwater) system 
Steam drum | 
TPF, 
Turbine Generator 
: 
| Turbine Load absorber 
i 
= <on)-Fioa J 
| 
| OC) oleae 
| | 
| 
| 
Desuperheating 
condenser 
L.. (>: nee) 
Typical nuclear-power test loop showing points where sensing elements gather data. 
Quantities monitored in the reactor are neutron flux (NF), temperature (T), average of reactor inlet 
and outlet temperatures (Ta), and fuel-element-‘‘meat" temperature (Tm) 
Data-Handling System 
for Nuclear-Power Tests 
Automatic data reduction is replacing hand logging and plotting. 
This fast, accurate system gathers transient and steady-state data 
needed for the design of efficient nuclear power plants 
By RAYMOND A. EDWARDS 
Atomic Power Equipment Department, General Electric Company, San Jose, California 
ONE OF THE CHALLENGING aspects of 
nuclear engineering is that a great deal 
of information has still to be gathered 
before standardization or ‘‘cookbook”’ 
plant design can take place. Inter- 
pretation of data from a chart and 
logging of data by an operator are 
time-consuming and subject to error. 
Test facilities as large as the Navy- 
sponsored submarine prototypes justify 
the use of modern data-reduction equip- 
ment. Human operators need never 
handle the data until they are printed 
on a sheet or plotted as curves. Strip- 
chart recorders, conventional indica- 
tors for steady-state data, and multi- 
channel oscillographs are losing ground 
to advanced methods of data reduction. 
A data-reduction system has been de- 
signed for nuclear-power test facilities 
based on information gathered during 
design and operation of three proto- 
types. Depending on their signifi- 
cance, variables are read out in one or 
45 
