METHOD OF SYNTHESIZING AXIAL POWER DISTRIBUTIONS OF NUCLEAR REACTOR CORE USING NEURAL NETWORK CIRCUIT AND IN-CORE PROTECTION SYSTEM (ICOPS) USING THE SAME

摘要

There are provided a method of synthesizing axial power distributions of a nuclear reactor core using a neural network circuit and an in-core protection system (ICOPS) using the same, in which using the neural network circuit including an input layer, an output layer, and at least one hidden layer, each layer being configured with at least one node, each node of one layer being connected to nodes of the other layers, node-to-node connections being made with connection weights varied based on a learning result, optimum connection weights between the respective nodes constituting the neural network circuit are determined through learning based on various core design data applied to the design of a nuclear reactor core of a nuclear power plant, and axial power distributions of the nuclear reactor core are synthesized based on ex-core flux detector signals measured by ex-core neutron flux detectors during operation of a nuclear reactor, so that the initial time required to perform a start-up test of the nuclear reactor can be reduced since basic data for synthesizing axial power distributions need not be separately measured in the start-up test of the nuclear reactor contrary to a conventional ICOPS, thereby improving the economic efficiency of the nuclear power plant, and so that overall nuclear reactor core design data can be used rather than actual measurement data in the start-up test (i.e., at the beginning of a period of nuclear fuel), thereby more accurately replicating axial power distributions of the nuclear reactor core throughout the overall period of the nuclear fuel.