Poster: Hardware-Based Demonstration of Temperature Control Functions for Reactor Systems

Autonomous thermal regulation in nuclear reactors remains crucial for maintaining stable operation and ensuring the integrity of fuel. To alleviate public skepticism of the safety of nuclear reactors, demonstrating control over this key factor is pivotal. Utilizing electric heat pads to simulate the heat released in a reactor core, thermocouples for temperature monitoring, and an Arduino micro programmable logic controller (PLC) with an embedded proportional-integral-derivative (PID) algorithm for control, a hardware-based demonstration of a reactor heating system will validate the efficacy of reactor control over this key parameter.. Authors: Baiden, Josephine [INL SULI Intern]; Bhowmik, Palash Kumar [Idaho National Laboratory]. DOE Contract: AC07-05ID14517. Subjects: 21 - SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS; 42 - ENGINEERING; 46 - INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; 47 - OTHER INSTRUMENTATION; hardware demonstration; reactor system; temperature control