Differential influence of instruments in nuclear core activity evaluation by data assimilation

TL;DR

This paper investigates how different instrument configurations affect the accuracy of nuclear core activity reconstructions using data assimilation, highlighting the importance of instrument placement and network design.

Contribution

It introduces a procedure to evaluate the influence of instruments in nuclear core activity assessment, considering various network configurations and instrument placements.

Findings

Instrument influence varies with location and network configuration.

Optimal instrument placement improves activity estimation accuracy.

Influence depends on both instrument independence and network structure.

Abstract

The global activity fields of a nuclear core can be reconstructed using data assimilation. Data assimilation allows to combine measurements from instruments, and information from a model, to evaluate the best possible activity within the core. We present and apply a specific procedure which evaluates this influence by adding or removing instruments in a given measurement network (possibly empty). The study of various network configurations of instruments in the nuclear core establishes that influence of the instruments depends both on the independant instrumentation location and on the chosen network.