Reactor Thermal Power Measurements in Low Power Range

The thermal power rate in nuclear reactors is one of the most important parameters for
safety, operational and research reasons. The thermal power rate can be computed
using heat balance on the primary cooling circuit. The heat balance is performed using
measurements of the temperature difference and the flow rate in the primary cooling
circuit. At low energy range operation, the relative measurement error on the
temperature difference in the primary cooling circuit becomes more significant.
Moreover, the uncertainty regarding the flow rate adds an additional error source.
This work depicts the methodology which enables to optimize the computation of the
thermal power rate in steady states and transient conditions with noisy measurements.